87 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/83c4051debd720e5ba7c53501bcaa98e.pdf 526481b215825d3f1b9202ef845a09a0 PDF Text Text Day 82. by windoworks Along with everything else, spring allergies have arrived. I sneeze an average of 12 times in a row just after breakfast and it reminds me of my father. Every morning after breakfast, he would suddenly push his chair out from the table, turn sideways, whip out his big handkerchief and sneeze violently, sometimes as many as 20 times. His eyes would water, his nose would swell and redden - and here I am, looking exactly the same. I am also learning to be an historian and Craig tells me that I should always acknowledge my sources. I have collected pieces for weeks now in a file and for some I have no idea which publication they came from. So, I will put all words that are not mine in italics going forward, and acknowledge the source if I know it. To begin with, from the International Big History Association: The story of the big bang is that no matter where you come from or who you are, the origins of everything are the same for every location and person. Whoever comes from America, Africa, China, or another galaxy all share the same ultimate origin. The story of LUCA is that the Last Universal Common Ancestor, from about 3.8 billion years ago, seems to have been the common ancestor for every currently living being on Earth. The best evidence we have now suggests that primates evolved into hominins and then into humans in Africa. It was in Africa where we became bipedal, and developed opposable thumbs and the size and complexity of our brains. It was in Africa where we developed the abilities to speak, have symbolic thought, fashion tools, and so much else. And all of us humans are descendants of these Africans. All of us currently living outside of Africa have ancestors who emigrated from there. There are other meanings of big history as well, but one is that ultimately, all of us share a number of key origins. We all come out of the same story. Whoever the they is, they come from the same place as we do. They live in the same homeland as we do. They have our same ancestors. We need to sit around the same table and tell each other our mutual family stories, the stories of where we came from, the stories of our common origins. We’ll need to tell other stories too. How other galaxies are flying off away from us and out of our view. Of descendants of LUCA who became so different from each other. Of human cultures that developed after we emigrated from Africa and for a long time lost contact with each other. Of slavery, and genocide, and lynchings, and videos of murder. But we’ll tell those stories not to increase division, but to draw on our common origins. To push back against the divisions and hostilities and tribalism, and be part of a greater �complexity than before. To use our memory of a deep common past to imagine and build a common future. Yesterday was a day of stark contrasts. I spent the morning watching the SpaceX Dragon dock with the International Space Station in real time. Imagine watching something like that as it was happening. And then I watched a video post from Governor Whitmer and Lieutenant-Governor Gilchrist acknowledging the pain and anger and promising to work together with every Michigander to begin to address and recognize the problems in our society. Next there was a press conference with Mayor Bliss, Police Chief Payne and the Fire Chief Lehman. They thanked the hundreds of Grand Rapidians who had appeared downtown as early as 5 am yesterday morning, with brooms and buckets, gloves and masks, and spent all morning hammering up particle board over EVERY shop and office window on Monroe, scrubbed graffiti off everything, and swept up piles and piles of shattered glass - among other tasks. Restaurants and cafes with boarded up windows opened up their kitchens and fed the volunteers. There are reports that the second wave of protesters on Saturday night were bussed in and paid to riot. The police have arrested a number of people from photos on FaceBook. It always amazes me how people assume they are behaving in a vacuum - there are cameras everywhere! Luckily, no one was injured. Possessions and property can always be repaired and replaced, but people can’t. At the Mayors’s press conference she announced a curfew from 7pm to 5am for Sunday and Monday nights. Anyone outside for no reason can be fined and jailed. She also called in the National Guard. There were about 4,500 people downtown on Saturday night - more than the crowd of protesters in Detroit. So after lunch, we drove downtown. Some of the streets were blocked off but as we drove along Monroe below Monroe Mall and Rosa Park Circle, I took these photos. They’re not great but you can see all the boarded up storefronts. ����Then we came home and began putting everything back in the kitchen which Craig had repainted al weekend long. It does look beautiful. ���And just as Craig was putting some things back on the walls, he looked out the window and saw Murphy was in the garden itself, drinking from the bird bath. So he raced outside, flew down the back stairs, missed the bottom step and fell and badly strained his right leg quadriceps muscles, or one of them (there’s four). So after 2 ibuprofen capsules, some icing of the leg and a cup of tea and chocolate (because pain relief, hot tea and chocolate helps everything) I decided he should have someone qualified look at it. I drove him to nearby Blodgett Hospital, where he stayed and I drove home. This week they do allow one other person to wait with the patient, but I wasn’t really comfortable going inside a hospital at this time. Less than an hour later I picked him up and brought him home. The nurse had injected him on his right hip with an anti inflammatory and we had a quiet night - just like every other night for 83 days now. This morning he will call the Orthopedic Surgeon they recommended to get it checked again. I’m 70 years old. I’ve never lived anywhere where there was a riot before, never lived in a city under a curfew or where they called in the National Guard. I remain astonished, disturbed, distressed, saddened and mostly helpless. Words and feelings of sorrow are not enough but its all I have at this time. To end, the days flashback: we visited Bury St Edmunds, a market town, with a famous cathedral, St Edmundsbury Cathedral. The town itself was built in 1080 but they have found Roman coins and evidence of Bronze Age activity. We wandered through the Main Street and then through a gate into the church gardens. ��The monastery was founded here in 633 and in 903 became the burial place of King Edmund the Martyr. The gardens were beautiful. It was late afternoon on a lovely day. More Brandon adventures tomorrow. Another difficult post to write. I take great comfort from the words from Big History posted above. Wherever you are and whoever you are, we are all related. Isn’t that the best place to begin from? � 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_2020-06-01_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-82 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 2020-06-01 Title A name given to the resource Day 82 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/0b2d36069cec1fb9f2ac25820183e8b3.pdf 5e09b4851c4c26bd1cd3fefe0560f079 PDF Text Text Day 83 by windoworks Yesterday, at her three times a week press conference, Governor Whitmer said: I am lifting the Stay At Home order effective immediately. She then repeated it for people like me who thought they must have misheard. I sat there on the couch and thought: what does this mean? And then I thought, perhaps it means that it is up to each of us to decide how we are going to interact with the wider world. She did say, wear a mask, keep 6 feet apart outside the house and don’t stop washing your hands. At this point I thought it might be interesting to look back at some milestones in my blogpost: 1. March 11: Last night Governor Whitmer declared a State of Emergency with 2 confirmed cases in Michigan (only two - what did she already know?) 2. March 22: Australia and New Zealand close down. 3. March 24: Gov Whitmer established Stay Home Stay Safe. Michigan has 1,791 cases and 24 deaths. 4. April 2 (9 days later): State of Emergency extended 4 more weeks. Michigan cases: a one day jump from 7500 to 9934 and deaths: 337. In Kent County: 119 cases and 2 deaths (increasing). 5. Today June 2 we have 3,748 confirmed cases and 89 deaths (1 month later). So looking forward here’s some thoughts from the New York Times: Here are some things we think we know about coronavirus: We’ll have to live with this for a long time. You should be wearing a mask. American public health infrastructure needs an update. Responding to the virus is extraordinarily expensive. We have a long way to go to fix virus testing. We can’t count on herd immunity to keep us healthy. The virus produces more symptoms than expected. We can worry a bit less about infection from surfaces. We can also worry less about a mutating virus. We can’t count on warm weather to defeat the virus. The bottom line: Wear a mask, keep your distance. When the time comes in the fall, get a flu shot, to protect yourself from one respiratory disease you can avoid and to help keep emergency rooms and urgent care from being overwhelmed. Hope for a treatment, a cure, a vaccine. Be patient. We have to pace ourselves. If there’s such a thing as a disease marathon, this is it. �Meanwhile in Washington D.C. where the White House turned its lights out on Sunday night and that may have been the night that trump hid in the bunker underneath, this happened yesterday: In Washington, police officers used tear gas and flash grenades to clear a path through a peaceful protest so President Trump could visit a nearby Episcopal church, St. John’s, where he posed for photos holding a Bible. An Episcopal bishop in Washington said she was “outraged” that he used the church “as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.” Trump also warned he would order the military into cities if local officials could not control their streets. When Governor Whitmer spoke yesterday at the press conference, she was visibly angry about the video conversation she had had earlier that day with trump and all the other state governors, in which trump threatened to send in the military to control state streets. I personally find that prospect terrifying. We would truly be a military state and trump would be the Dictator. We already have the National Guard here in Grand Rapids and it is somewhat unnerving to see the guards and their armored vehicles blocking the main access street to downtown. It is hard to comprehend this state of affairs when it is another beautiful sunny day and we can converse with our neighbors over back fences and from porch fronts. This has become our new normal. Yesterday we took Murphy Brown out to the groomers as her coat was a mess. It continues to be so uncomfortable when we encounter business owners who don’t wear masks. There is something reassuring about seeing people wearing masks. It tells me they are doing their best. The groomers and staff didn’t wear masks - but of course Craig did - and their assurances that no one had been sick simply indicated that they didn’t know or understand asymptomatic positivity. From the Hew York Times: About 35 percent of infected people have no symptoms at all, so if they are out and about, they could unknowingly infect other people. We won’t be taking Mis Murphy back for another trim for about 5 weeks, and her daycare days are effectively over for the foreseeable future. With everything else going on, a neighbor we have known since we moved here (17 years) had developed kidney disease about 2 years ago and had been on dialysis three days a week. Yesterday, she died which was sudden and shocked us all. A sad day and a feeling of helplessness. We can’t hug her husband and I’m not sure about a funeral. My neighbor Lea who is an Environmental Educator at middle school and who helped us (I mean Craig) build the rain garden between their house and ours, captured this photo of a dragonfly in the rain garden. �In our vegetable garden we have lettuces, broccoli seedlings, garlic, strawberries and some herbs. Seeds are also sprouting in the meadow patch too. I don’t think there’s any sign of the tomato seedlings. Of course all gardening activities are now on hold due to Craig’s injured (and painful) leg. The obligatory Oliver photo. Here he is painting, with interested bystanders, at daycare. As Zoe noted: he seems to be the painting leader. ��Today’s flashback: the next day we visited Grime’s Graves. This is a large Neolithic flint mining complex in Norfolk about 5 miles north east of Brandon. It was worked between 2,600 and 2,300BCE but it might have continued in to the Bronze and Iron Ages. Flint was cheaper than metals and was used for making polished stone axes. The whole area covers 91 acres and has at least 433 shafts dug into the natural chalk to reach the seams of flint. They found flint from Grime’s Graves in France and parts of Northern Europe, mined and exported in the Neolithic era. That makes you think, doesn’t it? How did it get there? ����In the top 2 photos, Craig crawled through the mining gallery on his hands and knees which was impressive and determined as he is not keen on small tight spaces. The guide told me that I shouldn’t go down and I agreed with him. They dug down to the flint seam and then they dug out the flint by hand and sent it back up in reed baskets to the surface. In the third photo, this is the ladder Craig climbed down. The original ladder was probably wooden. In the last photo, I am pointing at the hollows surrounding me which were all shafts that had collapsed over time. This was an amazing experience, almost as exciting as the cave paintings we had seen at Lascaux 2 (the duplicate of the real Lascaux). I imagined all the flint miners and knappers living and working in the area. If there’s such a thing as a disease marathon, this is it. I’ll just close with that today. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-02_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-83 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 2020-06-02 Title A name given to the resource Day 83 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/0e9acedb11efe77fde1c97881cfee9ef.pdf 63ee6fdaf8ab7d626ca2f84c2f652241 PDF Text Text Day 84 by windoworks 84 days of eating home cooked food. 84 days of reinventing leftovers. 84 days of learning to order everything online. 84 days of only walking in less populated places. 84 days of wearing a mask outside. 84 days of not remembering what day of the week it was. 84 days of watching the seasons turn from winter’s tail end to spring to almost officially summer. 84 days of reading posts from NPR, WaPo, NYT. 84 days of unexpected delights, days of despair and an increasing dependency on video chats. 84 days of ‘its not the same, but its something’. Today marks 12 weeks of isolating. And while Gov Whitmer says we can go outside and we can gather in groups of 100 if we’re careful, I don’t really see a change on my block. We’re all too careful, cautious and still uncomfortable. In England, where my niece Elle is back at work with just 3 people in her office, there are some lifting of restrictions. On the weekend, she and her partner Terry went to a nearby beach and enjoyed the day without the usual overload of tourists. ��This is Portmeor, near St Ives. Yesterday the city commission here voted to lift the curfew but retain the state of emergency until June 16. As of yesterday, you still can’t drive along Fulton St, which makes travel difficult as the freeway entrance on Lake Michigan is currently closed for repairs. �This is the Police Dept building and on the corner of that building is the Secretary of State’s downtown office. �This is the clothing store kitty corner to the Police Dept. For our walk yesterday we went back to the ravine park next to the GVSU Allendale campus. ��The woods there are gorgeous. We had to walk slowly, because Craig is restricted to gentle walking for the next few weeks until his leg heals. The ravine is deep and beautiful with a heavy tree cover. Notice my hands in my pockets - that’s to stop me touching the handrails like I did on our last walk. It’s so easy to forget! Probably there’s no virus on handrails, but you never know! �This is the same river scene that we photographed last week, but look how much the water has gone down and what a deep brown, muddy color. And obviously this is the park to walk in for mothers with prams. There was a surprising number of them. When Gov Whitmer opened up some more businesses this week, here’s the list that are still closed: Amusement parks Arcades Bingo halls Body art facilities Bowling alleys Casinos licensed by the Michigan Gaming Control Board Climbing facilities (indoor) Dance areas (indoor) Exercise facilities (indoor) Exercise studios (indoor) Fitness centers (indoor) Gymnasiums (indoor) �Hair salons Massage businesses Millionaire Parties licensed by the Michigan Gaming Control Board Nail salons Personal care services that involve close contact of persons Piercing services Racetracks licensed by the Michigan Gaming Control Board Recreation centers (indoor) Skating rinks Sports facilities (indoor) Tanning salons Tattoo parlors Theaters, cinemas, and performance venues (indoor) Traditional spas Trampoline parks Still no hair salons which is okay because that’s something I’m still not comfortable with. So yesterday was also a hair cutting day. I cut Craig’s with the hair clippers and he helped me trim mine with the hair salon scissors. Craig wanted to use the clippers on me but I’m still not there yet. An Oliver photo: ��Notice how he puts his left leg out in front and then tucks his right leg back and sits on his right foot. Every day. Today’s flashback: Norwich. From the late Middle Ages (1300-1500) until the Industrial Revolution (1750 onwards), Norwich was the second largest city in England after London. �This is Norwich Cathedral Gatehouse. ��Inside the cathedral with a closeup of the altar. �Me walking in the cloisters. These are covered walkways that the monks used. Hence a ’cloistered’ life. Also in Norwich was a Norman castle which had been restored and turned into a museum. �����The top photo is inside the Norman castle, refurbished as a museum and very well done. The second photo is of a window or arrow slit. The next photo is of a garderobe, that is a castle toilet. These were also excellent places to have a private conversation. They emptied inside the castle walls and out into the moat below. Some years before, we visited Warwick Castle (just out of London) and I remember looking down the chute in one of the garderobes there. The wind that whistled up was freezing. I don’ t imagine you sat for long especially in winter. A beautiful stained glass window in he castle and the last photo is of the market place. It was founded in the 11th century and has been in operation for over 900 years. It generally operated on Wednesdays and Saturdays but now its open Monday to Saturdays. Kent County Stats: 3,777 cases and 93 deaths. Still gradually rising. So stay safe, wear your mask and wash your hands. � 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_2020-06-03_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-84 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 2020-06-03 Title A name given to the resource Day 84 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/1258065f7b96ee0f97f6ce2e0e50ec73.pdf e90bd5767dae636b9118e4fcb783dc38 PDF Text Text Day 85. by windoworks One of the consequences of the coronavirus is that there will be no funeral for Stephanie, one of the founding members of our block’s book club. After reading her obituary, I realized what an integral part of the Grand Rapids music/theater scene she was. She would walk past our house most weekday afternoons on her way to the little house 4 doors down from us that she used as her music studio. She taught piano there. Some days when the windows were open you could hear the music being played. At book club nights, she nearly always loved the book choice and she always had a funny story to tell. She was the originator of my favorite line regarding camping: oh no thank you. I like hotels because I always like to be 7 steps from the bed to the bathroom. Goodbye Stephanie. I’m glad I knew you. The week continues. There are continuing protests around the country and around the world. The 3 other officers complicit in George Floyd’s death have been charged. Derek Chauvin’s initial charge has been changed to second degree murder. I don’t understand murder charges but I imagine second degree is more serious than third degree - and first degree must be the most serious of all. This is our Governor’s reaction to all this: The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor were a result of hundreds of years of inequity and institutional racism. I am horrified, heartbroken, and taking action. Today, I requested that the Michigan Commission of Law Enforcement Standards provide guidance to law enforcement agencies on continuing education, including diversity and implicit bias training, and urging law enforcement agencies to implement duty to intervene polices. I also called on our Legislature to act on Senator Irwin’s bill, SB 945. Under this bill, incoming law enforcement officers would be required by law to go through training on implicit bias, de-escalation techniques, and mental health screenings. These are steps in the right direction, but until Black mothers can share the same set of concerns as White mothers when their children leave their homes, we have work to do. All Michiganders have the right to be treated with dignity and respect by law enforcement, and I’m determined to see it through. And here’s an answer to a question you might have had, from NPR (National Public Radio): Will the protests spread COVID-19? The answer is yes, Robinson Meyer reports—experts anticipate an uptick in cases within two weeks. He explains why: The virus seems to spread the most when people yell (such as to chant a slogan), sneeze (to expel pepper �spray), or cough (after inhaling tear gas). It is transmitted most efficiently in crowds and large gatherings, and research has found that just a few contagious people can infect hundreds of susceptible people around them. The virus can spread especially easily in small, cramped places, such as police vans and jails. And this information: From Alan Burdick, a science editor for NYT Unlike previous SARS viruses, which tended to settle deeper in the respiratory system, this one tends to settle in the upper respiratory system — in your nose and throat. That means that it tends to spread with your voice, in addition to coughs and sneezes. And when you look at where a lot of the major superspreader events have occurred, it’s places like churches where folks are singing. It’s meatpacking plants where people have to talk really loud. It’s sports arenas. It’s call centers. And I realized, holy cow, this is a virus that is ideally adapted to human conversation. And lastly, here’s a list of what we don’t know - yet: How many people have been infected. The amount of virus it takes to make you sick. Why some people get so much sicker than others. The role of children in spreading the virus. When or where the new coronavirus started spreading. How long you’ll be immune after infection. Okay, deep breath. So yesterday, after I had attempted to pull the covers up over my head and never get out of bed again, I told Craig I would like to drive out to Lake Michigan and look at the water. So, armed with coffee and snacks, we set out along Leonard through the lush green countryside to Grand Haven. When we got there, there was a ship sailing out through the channel to the lake and as it sailed, a huge thick fog came rolling in. ��And then we drove on to Noto’s and parked there to look at the water. �It’s hard to see the fog but after a few minutes, the lighthouse and walkway (in the distance) disappeared completely from view. Then we drove home for lunch and I felt better. Two other photos for your consideration: �This is a photo of the National Guard on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. ��And I’ll just leave this here. So, Oliver: ��Oliver is holding a rainbow wall or window hanging, made by my talented niece, Elle. She lives in Cornwall, England and she made many of these rainbows, sold them and then donated 124 pounds to the National Health Service which they gave her a certificate for! My neighbors and I have bought some and are waiting for them to arrive. She also made this one which I bought a month ago and it hangs on the TV room wall. ��She is also an awesome potter and I’d love to buy some mugs or such but it’s hard to send breakable items through the mail. Check out her Instagram page: completeanduttercraft. Brandon flashback: Thetford had a day to celebrate all things Thetford, called the Thetford Open Day, and we went along. ��This is Thomas Paine who was born in Thetford in 1737. He migrated to the British American Colonies in 1774 and he participated in the American Revolution. He wrote a powerful pamphlet called Common Sense which helped to energize the revolution. He then became involved in the French Revolution. During these years he wrote The Age of Reason, which proved popular at the time - and you can read more about him and his writings online. The base of the plinth next to Craig had many of his more famous quotes written on it. ���In the top photo is a steam tractor. There was a tractor museum and this was one of 2 working models. In the second photo, Craig is sitting at Captain Mannering’s desk. This is an English comedy series set during the Second World War and is about the everyday life in Thetford and the escapades of the voluntary Home Guard. It’s called Dad’s Army and you can still find in on Netflix I think. We did not know that Thetford was used for the outdoor scenes. This last photo is inside a military museum in Thetford and after we wandered around and looked at all the rooms in this centuries old house, we stopped in the front room and listened to an expert in weapons from both WWI and WWII. Very interesting day all round! Remember: 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_2020-06-04_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-85 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 2020-06-04 Title A name given to the resource Day 85 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/1cabca4f12641b10caa81164dc4c3d7a.pdf 1fbd044ffefdb58cbbd1d33b042cbc87 PDF Text Text Day 86. by windoworks Stats in Kent County. Cases - 3,853 and 95 deaths. Governor Whitmer referred to Grand Rapids earlier this week as still an active area. In state rankings for COVID-19, some weeks ago Michigan ranked 4th but this week it ranks 26th. Well done, us! Although Gov. Whitmer lifted the Stay At Home order, people don’t seem to be rushing out. In fact there is a personal resistance issue for many people including me. It’s not over. Cases are spiking again in places across America. Here in Grand Rapids, we wonder what will happen in another week, which makes it 2 weeks from the first protest and subsequent riot downtown. All that shouting, jostling, running (and panting), coughing and sneezing. For the first time some notable people are beginning to speak out about trump and his behavior. Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us,” Jim Mattis retired 4 star general, said in his statement. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.” And from President Barack Obama: In his first public remarks since Floyd’s death, former president Barack Obama emphasized the need for local police departments to implement reforms proposed by a task force he appointed after Michael Brown was shot by a white police office in Ferguson, Mo., six years ago. “To bring about real change, we have to both highlight a problem and make people in power uncomfortable, but we also have to translate that into practical solutions and laws,” Obama said during a virtual town hall hosted by his nonprofit, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. “And every step of progress in this country, every expansion of freedom, every expression of our deepest ideals has been won through efforts that made the status quo uncomfortable” In virus news: One question, answered: What does it mean do be a COVID-19 “long-hauler”? Science writer Ed Yong explains: I wrote about COVID-19 long-haulers—the thousands of people who’ve been struggling with months of debilitating symptoms. Most of them haven’t been hospitalized, so their cases technically count as “mild.” But their lives have nonetheless been flattened by rolling waves of symptoms, including weeks of fever, delirium, and crushing fatigue. Many have faced disbelief from friends and medical professionals because �they don’t fit the typical profile of the disease. Many have doubted themselves, been gaslit and dismissed, been told that it’s all in their heads. But they are a crucial and overlooked part of the pandemic narrative. But here’s a new development. Drive-in movie theaters - hands up if you remember them? When we first moved to the suburbs in Sydney with the birth of our daughter Zoe, we rented a house literally less than a block from a drive-in movie theater. We loved it. We could actually go to the movies with small children asleep in the back seat of our car. I even loved the toasted cheese sandwiches available at the snack store. At first, you had to hang the speaker box on the passenger side window but as time went by, you just tuned into the right wavelength on the car radio. For obvious reasons they’re making a comeback but not just for movies. They’re developing into music venues, concert venues etc. Would we all go to a large auditorium with spaced seating to watch a ballet, an opera, a rock concert or a Broadway show? Mmm. Maybe not. Would I go to see the same show on a stage at a drive-in, sitting safely in my own car? Absolutely. Yesterday we drove out to the Meijer Trail near 64th street. As we were driving, Craig remarked that it was probably too hot for walking and I agreed. As we neared 64th we could see lots of flashing lights and a commotion on one side of the road. As we drove slowly past, I saw a man lying on the road with a fire fighter giving him chest compressions. I think he was a motor cyclist who might have collided with a black truck. I have never seen anyone being resuscitated before except on tv. It was very disturbing. On our way home we stopped at Harvest Health, one of my favorite grocery stores with organic and diet restrictions foods etc. I had made an order online and we had come to pay and pick up curbside. While we waited, a young masked woman came out of the store and carefully wiped down the handles and the glass. Shortly after that, when Craig had paid over the phone, a young masked and gloved man came out of the store, pushing a cart with our groceries. We were so impressed that we might actually go inside the store next week to shop ourselves. And speaking of that: While staying home is still the safest option, we’ll need to build structures that allow for relief from quarantine fatigue. The key to responsibly reopening your life is understanding what makes you and those around you more or less safe at any given moment. (No memory of where that quote came from - its been in my file for some time). No photos of Oliver from yesterday but here’s one I don’t think I’ve posted before: ��This is Oliver with his Great Uncle Drew, in the grocery store. He’s wearing his koala hat. Still in Brandon. Next we visited King’s Lynn. It was built on the banks of the Great Ouse. It became a port town, and was England’s most important port during the Middle Ages. It had an Open Day and we went along. The first thing we saw was this medieval crumhorn quartet accompanied by a drummer. This set the tone for the day. These musicians were wonderful. ���Morris dancers. This is a form of English folk dance. They wear bell pads on their shins and wield sticks, swords and handkerchiefs. Some groups wear straw hats with ribbons and flowers on them. The earliest mention of Morris dancers is 1448, with a payment slip to the Morris dancers of the London Goldsmiths’ Company. We watched about 3 or 4 teams demonstrating different styles of Morris dancing. One team had women dancing as well. As they dance, the bells on their knee pads jingle. ���Brass and stone tombstones inside St Margarets Cathedral (I think this is where we saw them). In the middle of the market square there was an underground air raid shelter (King’s Lynn was bombed in both world wars). You lined up to go down, and then they let about 20 of us in at one time. It was dark and hot and a rabbit warren of tunnels. At one point our guide turned all the lights off so we were standing in the dark, underground! I guess when the bombs fall you feel safer down there. ��A dancing display inside the Town Hall. These ladies and men were wearing (perhaps) Georgian dresses, dancing the gavotte. They dragged me up to dance. It was hot and so much harder than you might imagine. I tried hard not to make a fool of myself. ���Towards the end of the afternoon we climbed on the old fashioned and very uncomfortable bus and drove around the town. Then we got out and drove our car out as near to the mouth of the Great Ouse as we could get. Another exhausting, hot but really entertaining day. So, another day. Use it 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_2020-06-05_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-86 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 2020-06-05 Title A name given to the resource Day 86 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/b21bf8d35d28dc386e0e970b4f8780f9.pdf c34bf8044dc8a2f6efbbf9e73bba40cf PDF Text Text Day 87 by windoworks Yesterday we drove downtown and parked in the Library parking lot which was open and then we walked to Monroe. I had thought that all the windows covered in plywood had been smashed - and certainly some had. But many windows were covered as a precautionary measure. Art students and artists have begun painting the plywood covers. ��������My neighbor James posted again about being black. I won’t reprint all of his excellent and thought provoking post, just this: It's been a rough few weeks. I mean months. I mean years. I mean decades. I mean, it's been a rough history for black people in this country. We've watched the videos and read the stories. We all know what's going on right now. America is at a breaking point. Really, a pivotal moment in our nation's history. It might be one white-hot summer. In Washington DC, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) formally renamed the street outside the White House after ordering city crews to paint "Black Lives Matter" in giant yellow letters along 16th Street NW. It’s a pointed message in support of demonstrators and against the president, who ordered an escalation of federal military and law enforcement presence on the streets of Washington in response to sporadic looting and unrest earlier in the week. Wow! That’s really big letters - you can’t miss that. And then she added this: �Now to something to make us laugh. Stuffed animals ride the Giant Dipper roller coaster at Belmont Park in Mission Beach on June 1, 2020. The park has been running the coaster to keep it from tightening up during the recent closures.(K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) �Well they look like they’re having a good time. Yesterday Governor Whitmer announced that all hair salons and nail salons across Michigan can open on June 15. My hair salon is still closed but I left a message. I have decided that perhaps the days of auburnish �hair is over and I might embrace the grey. I might also get the grey enhanced but if we are locked down again in the winter, I don’t want to worry about my hair growing out. The Women’s City Club is in communication with Kent Country Club about when we could come back for a Thursday lunch and program and how would that look. It’s involving a lot more planning on the WCC part than we originally thought. And although Kent Country Club is reopening properly next week - events such as our Thursday programs are still limited to 10 people only. We have pushed our first event to July 30 in hopes that this restriction will be lifted by then. It is apparent that reopening stores, restaurants and cafes is a difficult proposition. Everyone wants everything to go back to normal. I almost don’t remember what normal used to be. An example: I asked Craig this morning if he had enough vegemite for his breakfast. He said not to worry, I’ll just go to World Market and buy more. Well no, World Market is temporarily closed and as it is owned by Bed, Bath and Beyond (who knew these things?) there’s a fair chance it may be closing permanently as I think the company is in trouble. I’ll just order it online, I said - and oh look! It will be here on Monday. Is this our normal now? And this confirms it: Along with millions of unemployed Americans, Starbucks is worried about being able to pay its rent. Retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond and the Gap have already stopped paying theirs, as have countless businesses large and small during the economic crisis. Nearly half of commercial rents were unpaid in May — setting up a dangerous chain reaction that could push landlords into bankruptcy, depress property values and freeze commercial credit markets. I just had to share this photo of Oliver. He’s 10 months old but the little baby is disappearing and in his place is this little boy with tons of personality. �The next day in Brandon. We decided to go to Ely to visit the Ely Cathedral. This present building dates back to 1083. You can read all about it on line. There is a long list of people buried there, mostly bishops and archbishops but also Alfred Aetheling son of the English king Aethelred the Unready. A fair number of the bishops were also Lord High Chancellors of England. It is a large and ornate church. ������One of the reasons we had come to Ely Cathedral was because you could buy a ticket for a guided climb to the roof. I was nervous but I joined Craig anyway (who never found a tower or a mountain he didn’t want to climb). Our guide looked to be in his 80s and I thought: well if he can,,,, ��On the way up. I thought: I can do this. Then we went inside to look across the octagon. The painted panels opened and we could look across at each other. The painted panels were gorgeous. And look how far up we are. Still not at the top though. ���Looking down from the octagon. ��It wasn’t exactly a stroll and it included tiny doorways and staircases that were extremely narrow and steeply winding. ��John, our guide standing on the roof. The view out. John said that if you looked carefully you could see Cambridge in the distance. Another one of those things I am so glad I did and I never have to do again. I do not like heights at all. Well another day and its a lovely sunny one. Remember, as you get back out there, 6 feet apart from non household members, mask up (please!) and wash your hands. � 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_2020-06-06_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-87 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 2020-06-06 Title A name given to the resource Day 87 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/9c60843871bef7ebe6f8053dc1a994ae.pdf b070f63bd325de4da1f0d560db7a3acc PDF Text Text Day 88 by windoworks This morning Craig and I were talking about cruise ships. We came late to cruising and to be honest, we’ve never gone on a cruise ‘just because’, we’ve always cruised because Craig was lecturing onboard. I was prepared to detest cruising and from our very first cruise I have loved it. It’s not like exploring destinations in your own leisurely manner - you see the highlights of one specific place at a destination. Years ago I ran my own tour company, Garigal Tour Company, which specialized in performing arts tours out of and in to Australia. I always said to clients: you will see all the main points, but if you want to see more, you’ll have to come back later. And thats what cruise ship excursions are like. We cruised in the Caribbean over New Years Eve while Craig was the destination/enrichment lecturer and it was fun. As soon as we arrived home Craig was sick with the flu. Then in February we raced onto to a cruise in Central America, joining the ship in Costa Rica, 7 days into the cruise. A lecturer had dropped out due to illness and Craig agreed to fill in. On the flight from Atlanta to Costa Rica, we sat across the aisle from an extremely ill man who coughed and coughed and coughed for the entire flight. I remember joking half heartedly about coronavirus. The man never covered his mouth, ever. On the second day on the cruise, I began coughing. Eventually, I went to the doctor and he diagnosed a sinus infection, gave me antibiotics and said don’t worry. I worried whether we would have difficulty getting off the ship in San Diego but I did have a cover letter from the ship’s doctor. No one ever asked me anything. At this time cruise ships were experiencing great difficulties with quickly spreading infections. I’ll repeat: no one asked us anything. We flew home from San Diego on March 1 and I spent the next 2 weeks feeling miserable, seeing my own doctor and getting a second different course of antibiotics. I remember my doctor looking at my throat (no mask) and then suddenly moving back from me. I also remember losing my sense of smell and taste completely for about 2 days and they’ve never returned completely since. On March 11, Craig and I decided to self isolate for safety reasons. A few weeks later, I got in touch with a friend I had made on several cruises and she wrote to say that she had checked our cruise in February for infected passengers and there was one confirmed COVID-19 passenger who disembarked in San Diego with us. No one ever contacted us about testing. Craig still can’t believe we managed to get off the ship. Some weeks ago I wrote about Craig and I being tested. We were both negative. Did I have the virus? Did Craig have it in January? We’ll never know unless we are tested for antibodies. We did ask our doctor about that a few weeks ago, but the test was not considered reliable at that time. So why were we talking about cruise ships? Because of the massive overhaul that they are all doing in order to prevent another outbreak onboard. I have just watched 2 videos about changes in cruising. I think �most significant are: no over 70s without a doctors certificate of health (hey, thats me!); no buffet; no touch door handles; daily temperatures taken; limited seating with booking only for bars, restaurants, theaters and possibly pools; air conditioners with HEPA filters and fresh air not recycled; smaller groups on shore excursions perhaps using jeeps instead of buses; cleaning cabins twice daily to high sanitation standards; a mud room area at the door of your cabin for clothes and shoes changing after shore excursions. There are more changes but it makes me think. On the one hand, the passenger feels safer but on the other hand, it takes a lot of the fun and relaxation out of cruising. Plus, if I’m struggling with thinking about eating in a restaurant while social distancing, I can’t really consider cruising or even the flying to get to the port. Craig has a colleague who lives in California and his child is coming to West Michigan for school. He and his family are driving across to Grand Rapids at the end of this month because they didn’t feel comfortable flying. And to finish this virus discussion: yesterday Kent County had 3,922 cases and 99 deaths. We continue to rise slowly here. I imagine that if they continue to test in the aggressive manner that has been adopted, we will see larger numbers in the days ahead. Our local CVS (4 blocks walk away) has drive thru testing now. There was another demonstration yesterday downtown. A very large group of people assembled and chanted loudly. It looked well organized and well attended and I applaud all those attendees. I spent yesterday afternoon in bed feeling exhausted, but even if I was feeling great I would have been too nervous to attend. My heart goes with the demonstrators but I’m too scared to make my feet to go too. Here’s a photo of Oliver with his father, Christian. �Still living in Brandon. 2 miles from Brandon is the village of Santon Downham. Adjacent to the village is a park, on the edge of Thetford Forest. This is situated next to the Little Ouse river. On one side of the river is the public park area and on the other side are horse farms. The first time we went there to have �our picnic lunch, there were 2 women riding horses in the river itself and we stood on the bridge as they coaxed the horses under the bridge. ��In the above photo, on a different day, there were 2 other women training one very nervous pony who was most reluctant to go into the water. We also met a forest ranger who was breeding highland cattle from Scotland, and she had permission to keep them in a field near the park. They are very hardy animals with heavy coats, and look at those horns! ��This is the original Santon Downham church. The village that thrived along the river bank in medieval times is long gone now, but in its heyday it was a popular trading port on the river. �Over the bridge to the other side of the river, there are stables and horse farms, and a walking/riding track open to the public. It winds along through the trees and was a great spot for walking. These women rode quietly past us while we stood on the side of the track. ��It was a favorite place for us to picnic and walk and sometimes just enjoy the sights and sounds of children playing in the shallows of the river. So, another day. Big excitement today - our grocery order is arriving! � 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_2020-06-07_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-88 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 2020-06-07 Title A name given to the resource Day 88 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/acfd4f5b2faac08506986714a9ec306a.pdf 76d4c83570d77802d832463ed84c2a50 PDF Text Text Day 89 by windoworks I read an interesting article in The Guardian, titled: Were We Ready? Here are the main points. One emphatic response from scientists stresses that it is now clear we were very badly prepared for the arrival of Covid-19. This disease has turned out to be much worse than any of the pandemics that we had been anticipating and making plans to counter. It has a 1% death rate and it is highly transmissible, features that were considered to be highly unlikely for any new emerging disease we thought we might face. Such features represent the worst possible realistic scenario that we could envisage and lie at the very limit of what we thought we should expect. So the pandemic we have got now is about as bad as we thought it could ever get. It is a very sobering prospect. When we first encountered this disease, we thought it was just a respiratory illness that affected the upper part of the chest. Now it is clear that it can cause illnesses of the sinus; can affect the lining of blood vessels and can lead to blood clots developing. The disease has also been linked to extreme fatigue, kidney damage and heart attacks – and quite often in relatively young people. This is not a disease to be underestimated. The problems concerning the disease’s impact on adults start when a person reaches 50 and get exponentially greater for each additional year of age. That means a significant proportion of our population – those over 75 – need protecting from this virus because its consequences for them are extremely serious. This morning Craig was listening to NPR (as he always does as he is making breakfast) and he heard a piece by Dustin Dwyer interviewing shop assistants at 3 Meijer grocery stores in Grand Rapids. Apparently some shoppers refuse to wear a mask and angrily tell the store assistants: its just a hoax! Just a hoax! I’m sorry but that beggars belief. If you read nothing else or listen or watch far right TV or radio - the borders between Canada and Mexico are closed! One more time for the people in the back even if you don’t believe that its a real thing - how do you account for the 112K people who have died in the United States since January? And not from car smashes, or drug overdoses or shooting or any other cause at all except the coronavirus? And explain to me what the 398K people died of across the world, or why almost every country in the world is closed to outsiders - no one in and no one out. This morning we have almost 2 million cases in the US and there are 6.8 million cases world wide, an increase of 136K overnight! If this is all a hoax, then it’s the best hoax ever thought of in the history of �humans. And what would be the point of all this suffering and death? What would be the prize for this hoax?` One shop assistant said, through her tears: I have to wear this mask for each 8 hour shift. It’s hot and uncomfortable, but you can’t even be bothered to wear one for 30 minutes. I cannot understand why someone can believe that they don’t need to wear a mask when inside any store or office. And here’s something to think about: at great financial cost, New Zealand closed their ENTIRE country down for 2 months or so. You could not drive anywhere except to the store, doctor or pharmacy. It wasn’t a plea, or a suggestion. It was policed and mandatory. They noted 7,000+ citizens who stopped for failing to comply and 315 of these were charged. You were allowed to go for a short walk near your home. That was it. No drive through food, coffee, pizza, burgers or alcohol - if your grocery store didn’t sell it, you didn’t get it! Totally locked down. My daughter-in-law nearly went stir crazy. And the prize for all this? Today New Zealand is totally virus free and almost all restrictions are lifted, except the borders are still closed. Was there an enormous cost to the economy and people’s anxiety levels? Yes, but they have no virus at all and they have great contact tracing and testing in place, just in case. Now I know its a tiny island country but a big part of their success was to trust their prime minister and comply. Yesterday in Kent County we had a new total of 3,941 cases and 100 deaths. Admittedly its not increasing hugely day by day, but it is increasing. Over the weekend, Zoe and Oliver went to stay with Bernie and Drew for the night. Here’s a photo of Oliver making a beeline for Archie, the cat. ��My next door neighbor high school graduated senior, Nicolas, decided to do a small part in making this time a little brighter. He put together care packages for people who are going through a hard time. The care packages will go to people who don't have a permanent home, have lost jobs, have family that needs support and so on. I think he was surprised at how much stuff was donated. ���I am always so impressed by young adults like Nicolas who have such big hearts and then show how they care in positive ways. One sunny day in Brandon, we drove off to visit the Norfolk Broads. This is a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The lakes, called Broads were formed by the flooding of peat workings. There are 7 rivers and 63 Broads. At first it was thought they were natural waterways but in the 1960s it was proved that they were flooded Medieval peat excavations. Peat is formed by partial decomposition of vegetable matter in the wet acidic conditions of bogs and fens, and it was cut out and dried and then used as fuel. In the Middle Ages it was a lucrative business. But then the sea levels rose and gradually the peat pits began to flood. Nowadays it is a type of national park and a popular place for vacations. We cruised along the broads for about 90 minutes and it was gorgeous. �����Four photos from our cruise of waterways and lakes. This bottom photo is of a roof being rethatched. With the flooding of the peat pits, the other industry developed, was using the large amounts of water reeds which grow along the waters edge and in the marshy areas for thatching. Thatching is a very old method of covering roofs. You have to dry the reeds first and then they are densely packed onto the roof surface. It keeps the roof dry as the water simply slides off the top layer. Eventually, the thatch deteriorates and has to be replaced with fresh thatch. Our guide told us it is a dying occupation with few master thatchers operating or teaching apprentices. I was so excited that we got to see a roof being rethatched. Another sunny day. Tomorrow then if you’re still following. � 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_2020-06-08_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-89 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 2020-06-08 Title A name given to the resource Day 89 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/3aaa49a106418312f673760db416039c.pdf 5b01034b01b7b0ad2a730c137233a18d PDF Text Text Day 90 by windoworks Well there was a brief moment when my fact file (thanks Mary Alice for the name), grew very thin. However that moment is over and once again I have been sent and I have found, interesting facts, to use. So first up from Washington Post Health: Shutdown orders prevented about 60 million novel coronavirus infections in the United States and 285 million in China, according to a research study published Monday that examined how stay-at-home orders and other restrictions limited the spread of the contagion. A separate study from epidemiologists at Imperial College London estimated the shutdowns saved about 3.1 million lives in 11 European countries, including 500,000 in the United Kingdom, and dropped infection rates by an average of 82 percent, sufficient to drive the contagion well below epidemic levels. The two reports on the effectiveness of the shutdowns come with a clear warning that the pandemic, even if in retreat in some of the places hardest hit, is far from over. The overwhelming majority of people remain susceptible to the virus. Only about 3 percent to 4 percent of people in the countries being studied have been infected to date. This is just the beginning of the epidemic: we’re very far from herd immunity. The risk of a second wave happening if all interventions and precautions are abandoned is very real. And to speak to that: The evidence suggests that the pandemic may be intensifying in the Sunbelt and the West more generally. We know this, first, by looking at cases and hospitalizations together. If cases are rising simply because the health-care system is testing more people, we’d expect most of the newly diagnosed people to have relatively mild infections, because someone with a more serious illness would have likely gone to a hospital in May. If cases are rising and more people are going to the hospital with COVID-19, we’d expect that more people are getting seriously sick. And in Arizona, alas, cases and hospitalizations are both at alltime highs. Cases and hospitalizations are also rising in Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Craig read this morning that 14 states including Puerto Rico, yesterday recorded the highest rate of increase of cases, so far. Cases are rising dramatically in Texas where the governor is opening up more businesses etc., after having begun to open up on May 1, against CDC recommendations. Here in Grand Rapids, people seem to be flocking to stores again. Yesterday we decided to visit Home Depot. We could get everything online and delivered except for a length of wood Craig needed cut to repair a broken plank in our back deck. �So armed with masks and pocket hand sanitizer, off we went. Nobody was cleaning the carts and there was a do it yourself station at the door. Inside was a strange mix of masks and non masks. The first thing we were looking for was a kitchen faucet. As we agonized over a third replacement faucet (don’t ask), two men, talking loudly with no masks came and stood next to us and then brushed past us to leave the aisle. After choosing the faucet, I left the store and waited in the car. When Craig came back he was furious. We talked on the way home and decided we weren’t ready for in person shopping yet. I asked him what his feelings were and he said: anger at people’s selfish attitude so clearly displayed. I thought then that if trump had ever once worn a mask publicly for just 5 minutes, we wouldn’t be having this problem. As we drove home, the man driving the pick up truck behind us had a MAGA hat on his dashboard. I wonder about trump supporters - are they always on the defensive, having to justify their stance? On FaceBook in what might be troll posts, they always seem so angry. Anger is exhausting and consuming, and it seems to take over your whole life. These days I try not to get as angry. Now we have to think how life will be going forward with whatever the pandemic hands us. I found an article which lays out a 5 point plan for going forward. I will post one point a day, starting today. 1. Check the health of your state and community To gauge your risk of coming into contact with an infected person, pay attention to two important indicators of Covid-19 in your area: the percentage of tests that are positive, and the trend in overall case rates. Start by learning the percentage of positive Covid-19 tests in your state, which tells you if testing and contact tracing are finding mild and asymptomatic cases. When positive test rates stay at 5 percent or lower for two weeks, that suggests there’s adequate testing in your state to get virus transmission under control, and you’re less likely to cross paths with the virus. The closer the number is to 2 percent, the better. It doesn’t mean you have total freedom bu it means there’s enough testing going on there that you can feel confident that your interactions in society are going to be of much lower risk. If the percentage of positive tests starts to rise, you should take more precautions. We’ll look at number 2 tomorrow. And in the complete contrast category, after lunch I called Romence Gardens and ordered and paid for tomato and sweet pepper seedlings. The instructions were clear and easy to follow: drive past the entrance and your plants will be on a table with your name on them. There they were and there was the worker carefully sanitizing carts to go in the ‘sanitized cart’ lane. A complete no contact operation and the seedlings are healthy and a great addition to our vegetable garden. It is Pride month, which I had forgotten in all the ongoing hoohaa and these appeared overnight in Eastown. ���Two beautiful rainbow crosswalks. And also appearing overnight, the first evidence of the cottonwood drifts. It’s just a light drift at this point, but it’ll get deeper as the week goes on. Funnily enough, wearing a mask while walking outside helps to protect us from them as they fly past. And an Oliver photo. He still has his cold and he seems to have given it to Zoe. In another development, he now ‘kisses’ Zoe and others - those big open mouthed kisses I remember from my children’s babyhood. ��At the end of each day’s FaceTime, Craig and I sing to Oliver. Our repertoire is meager - The Wheels on the Bus and If You’re Happy and You Know it, Clap Your Hands. He always rocks in time with a big smile on his face, but in the last 2 days, he’s started to sing with us - little growly baby sounds but he is singing. He also ‘talks’ nonstop. It’s bub-ba and the tone of his voice tells you clearly if he’s happy, sad, angry or irritated. I do so love being a grandmother and I do try to limit my Oliverisms in this post. On a very cold and rainy day we drove to Framlingham to visit Framlingham Castle. In the 15th and 16th centuries this was the home of the powerful Mowbray and Howard families. The Howards were headed by the Duke of Norfolk, and at the castle they told us that Anne Boleyn stayed there briefly when she returned from France and before her uncle (the Duke of Norfolk) placed her before Henry VIII’s roving eye. but thats a story for another day. This is the town of Framlingham. This photo was taken upstairs through the cafe window. Most castles of note have a village within the castle estate and in the past, the villages depended on the castles to survive. ������As you can see it was a miserable day. The castle was a circular construction with a newer lodge house in the middle. The entire household lived in the castle walls, which was most unusual. You could walk almost all the way around at the top of the walls and you listened to the commentary as you walked. Another interesting day in England. So, be careful out 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_2020-06-09_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-90 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 2020-06-09 Title A name given to the resource Day 90 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/423c4ab9d958774e9bd63c9b84b9383a.pdf 3b3e0641347422037668727df92b7b51 PDF Text Text Day 91 by windoworks This morning the rain has cleared away temporarily and the sun has come out. At the bottom of our block there is a large house owned by Calvin College and it houses senior students with a married couple as house parents. Every 3 years or so, the house parents leave and new parents are appointed. The current parents are leaving at the end of this week and so last night they invited us all to come to happy hour, sitting outside in the house parking lot. Craig and I went down for about 10 minutes ad then Zoe called so we went home and called her back. The gathering was nice but slightly awkward and we all stood or sat carefully apart. But it was good to have an opportunity to say goodbye to Becca and Kyle and we’ll miss them. Yesterday my friend canceled her annual 4th of July party (which was no surprise) and the Eastown Community Association reluctantly canceled September’s StreetFair for the first time in 47 years. Also yesterday, I read an article from Air New Zealand which said no long haul flights until 2021 at the earliest and probably 2022. They also said this was the same for all other airlines even if they’re not broadcasting it. This morning the numbers are out for a group of states that had large gatherings over the Memorial Day Weekend. These numbers are predominantly of cases that have been hospitalized. In Michigan we are flattening the curve but now the agonizing begins over schools reopening etc. My dentist wrote and said please come back as did my dermatologist. I’m not ready for those challenges just yet. A movement to slash funding for police departments is gaining traction. Though long a concept floated among left-leaning activists and academics, officials from Washington to Los Angeles are now seriously considering ways to scale back their police departments and redirect funding to social programs. On Sunday, nine members of the Minneapolis City Council announced they were seeking to dismantle the city’s police department. The ideas seem to be that police have been asked to intervene in a number of areas that should be the responsibility of other bodies, and that the equipment that some police departments have amassed such as tanks a) give entirely the wrong impression of police and their work and b) are a great waste of available resources. From my fact file: Stopping the steady stream of battlefield equipment into American cities will not solve systemic racism, but many criminal justice reformers see demilitarizing local departments as both an essential first step to �restoring public trust and a far more realistic goal than the rallying cry among some protesters to “defund the police.” Many Democratic strategists worry that calls for defunding the police will create political headaches, especially in swing states and the suburbs. What police departments need are techniques and training for deescalation. Giving them increasingly dangerous and powerful weapons of war moves us in the opposite direction,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said in an interview last week. “There is no evidence at all that the police in any of these situations have been outgunned. The idea that the solution to what's happening across the country is to arm ourselves to the hilt, and then essentially point those weapons in the direction of citizens, is preposterous.” The Justice in Policing Act, unveiled by congressional Democrats on Monday with more than 200 cosponsors, would ban chokeholds, establish a national database to track police misconduct, prohibit certain no-knock warrants and scale back liability shields for police officers in civil and criminal court. The 134page measure would also ban the Defense Department from transferring military-grade weapons to law enforcement agencies at the federal, state and local levels. The measure would specifically stop the Pentagon from providing bayonets, silencers, grenade launchers, grenades (including flash bangs) and other explosives. The Democratic proposal also bans the military from giving MRAPs to domestic law enforcement agencies, as well as armored or weaponized drones and long-range acoustic devices designed to disorient enemy combatants. In other disturbing news this morning is the wrap up from yesterday’s primary election in Georgia. It seems to be a conglomeration of new untried voting machines with untrained poll workers; poll workers calling in sick; long lines lasting 4 hours or more; people scared to go out to vote in case they got sick; and so on. Here in Michigan we received our absentee voting permission slips a week or so ago. We will vote absentee in August and November. Apparently our State Attorney-General sent these out to all citizens eligible to vote in Michigan. This year I will need to carefully research all vacant positions and the candidates, both local and national. And here’s something that is a tangent from above, but it made me laugh and maybe cheer. �In case you didn’t know - that’s the front door of the White House in the background, and this is one of the fences trump had erected to keep himself safe. The next point in how to reengage with the world safely; 2. Limit the number of your close contacts You’re safest with members of your household, but if you want to widen your circle to extended family or friends, keep the number of close contacts as low and as consistent as possible. One way to do this is to form a “corona bubble,” which happens when two households form an exclusive social circle, agreeing on safety guidelines and to see only each other. The arrangement allows people to visit each other’s homes and lead a somewhat normal, if limited, social life. It may be particularly helpful for families with similar structures — such as those with young children longing for playmates or teenagers seeking in-person contact. This requires a high level of trust. How does each family define reasonable precautions? Count the number of potential “leaks” for each member of the bubble — such as trips to the store or office, play dates, children and teens who see friends, or housekeepers and nannies who may visit multiple homes. Keep communication open and without judgment, so people feel comfortable disclosing new exposure risks and potential “leaks” in the bubble. Tomorrow we’ll look at managing your exposure budget - an intriguing idea. I wrote about possible cruise ship changes and one cruise line has come out with a very comprehensive list that they are going ahead with right now. �From Condé Nast traveler: Expect pre-boarding health screenings. Before boarding, passengers will undergo mandatory touch-free temperature scans, and possibly secondary medical screenings by health professionals. Any passenger with symptoms of illness (and perhaps, who has traveled internationally within 14 days) will be denied boarding. Luggage will be sanitized before loading. Expect touchless embarkation (crew will maintain touchless contact throughout voyages), and staggered boarding (same for disembarkation), with passengers wearing masks in public areas. Lines will cap passenger numbers. Cruise ships—especially large ocean liners—likely will sail with a reduced passenger count to better maintain social distancing throughout the ship while passengers and crew are on onboard. Crews will enhance cleaning measures. Expect frequent and in-depth disinfecting in all public areas, with hand sanitizing stations prominent throughout the ship, particularly in high-traffic areas. Cruise ships could extend turnaround times between trips to ensure deeper sanitization and disinfection. Some cruise lines, such as Avalon Waterways, are instituting new cleaning technologies. Their new electrostatic spray systems allow them to use the same environmentally friendly cleaners that protect against COVID-19, in a far more effective way. Ventilation systems are under intense scrutiny. Optimally, ships provide 100 percent fresh air to public spaces and passenger staterooms, through non-recirculating air conditioning systems using hospital-grade HEPA filters. Tomorrow I’ll post some more changes to cruising. One day in Brandon we decided to drive about an hour to the north coast to a town called Southwold. An interesting fact about this town is that is was the home to a number of Puritan emigrants to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s. It was a grey day and threatening to rain. ������The church at the top and then the beach and pier in the other photos, as well as looking back at the town from the pier. In this bottom photo is a painting on the pier in homage to George Orwell who may have written Animal Farm while he stayed there again in his 30s. It was so nice to sit by the sea again and this became the first photo in a series of me sitting by the sea in many locations. If this mornings blogpost (which is later than usual) seems disjointed, I had an ongoing ocular migraine this morning which forced me to take a migraine medication. And honestly, I am tired, fed up, sometimes bored and always trying to manage as best I can. I hope your day is going better for you. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-10_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-91 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 2020-06-10 Title A name given to the resource Day 91 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/857e4bc675988562b9ab0ee7bd13fc91.pdf 047f4aa891e3a42817568bff8f059ea0 PDF Text Text Day 92. by windoworks Another morning. Yesterday we drove to Meijer Gardens to check out how careful they had been in reopening the gardens themselves. I sat in the car while Craig reconnoitered. He came back impressed with what was in place. ��This is their formal notice. I think in all that careful verbiage one phrase popped out at me: Visit at your own risk. So thats their cover against being sued by someone who tests positive. And here’s the notice from a popular local brewery; So this is our life now. In New Zealand where life has literally returned to normal, Air New Zealand, which is operating mostly as a domestic airline, immediately released the middle seats in all planes and people flocked to buy tickets to vacation destinations within New Zealand. The borders are still not open and that may continue for some time. As I sit here typing, it is almost unimaginable to me to be able to return to a ‘normal’ life like that. �However, also in New Zealand, apparently 2 big companies with downtown office buildings have found that there is no need for their staff to return to work in the office premises. Both companies have decided to work online from home going forward. In Melbourne and Sydney, both of our children are continuing to work from home and feel that in the future they may work in the office for one or two days a week, but nothing has been decided yet. Zoe manages to work well, even with Oliver playing on the floor in the background. Sidewalk chalk art remains popular in our area. Here are some thinking (and talking) points: • Cops,” the long-running reality show from the Paramount Network that glorified police, was canceled in the face of protests. The show’s 33rd season was scheduled to premiere on June 15. (NYT) • The movie “Gone with the Wind” has been pulled from HBO Max. The network said that the 1939 cinematic classic, set partly on a plantation during and after the Civil War, is a “product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society.” (WSJ) • NFL stars Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins urged Clemson University to drop the name of slave �owner John C. Calhoun from its Honors College. (Des Bieler) • The founder of CrossFit “retired” under pressure after a firestorm over his flippant comments about Floyd. Greg Glassman told staff on a Zoom call that, “We’re not mourning for George Floyd." (Des Bieler and Jena McGregor) • Kennedy Mitchum, a Missouri woman, successfully prodded Merriam-Webster to change the definition of racism. The dictionary defined racism as "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race,” a definition she said was too simple and didn’t mention that racism “is a system of oppression for a certain group of people.” After a few back and forth emails, dictionary editor Alex Chambers said that a revised entry is being drafted. (KMOV4) • Confederate flags are a familiar sight at NASCAR events, but that could soon change. Bubba Wallace, the only black driver in the sport, wants a ban on the flag at tracks. (AP) Today’s reentering the world safely point: 3. Manage your exposure budget Risk is cumulative. Going forward, you’ll need to make trade-offs, choosing activities that are most important to you (like seeing an aging parent) and skipping things that might matter less (an office goingaway party). Think about managing virus risk just as you might manage a diet: If you want dessert, eat a little less for dinner. During a pandemic, every member of the household should manage their own exposure budget. (Think Weight Watchers points for virus risk.) You spend very few budget points for low-risk choices like a oncea-week grocery trip or exercising outdoors. You spend more budget points when you attend an indoor dinner party, get a haircut or go to the office. You blow your budget completely if you spend time in a crowd. Moving into a long-term management phase, we have to start thinking like this. Don’t take risks where it’s not needed, and make trade-offs that are congruent with your larger health needs and priorities. If seeing your grandchild in the park means, to balance this, you can only go to the supermarket every other week, maybe that’s a trade-off you’re willing to make for your mental health and well-being. After we left Meijer Gardens and began to drive home, the storm that had been threatening for some time arrived and we drove home in torrential rain and strong winds. You could not see 3 feet in front of the car. It was quite scary and the gutters were completely overwhelmed so we kept driving through torrents of water racing down the side of the road. When we got home it had eased off but the flooding between the garage and the house was so deep, I took off my sandals and walked barefooted into the house. �About an hour or so later, it got so dark we had to switch on the lights and then the rain and wind swirled around the house, lashing all the windows. In some spots in Grand Rapids, friends reported that it was like a mini tornado. Afterwards we found out this had happened to our neighbor Alsiha’s garage, 2 doors up. ��That’s a tree sized branch just waiting to fall the rest of the way. I imagine I’ll hear the sounds of chainsaws some time soon. At the designated pick up time of 3:30pm, Craig went to fetch our order from Harvest Health. Unfortunately they had lost power, so we will have to try again later today. An enormous number of houses lost power across Michigan in the afternoon, somewhere around 300,000. Our lights flickered once but this time we were lucky. This morning there are still well over 100,000 without power. Some more cruise ship adjustments: Buffets are on pause. Passengers must use hand-washing stations or hand sanitizers as they enter restaurants onboard. It's possible they'll only be able to dine with their traveling companions at assigned tables with assigned servers. Those servers will serve them items like condiments and bread, or they'll be presented in single-serve packaging. Passengers will receive single-use paper menus. Ships may institute multiple seating times, emphasize outdoor dining, or open more venues to minimize the number of passengers dining at once. Self-service buffets will be suspended, or manned by PPE-outfitted servers transferring food from behind transmission barriers to passengers’ plates. Self-service coffee and snack bars may be removed—though room service hours and menu selections likely will be expanded as a result. Staterooms will also get new safeguards Interactive televisions and digital apps may replace printed daily programs. Throw pillows and bedspreads could be eliminated, as well as welcome and turndown amenities. Cruise lines will likely place masks, gloves, multi-purpose disinfecting wipes, and hand sanitizer bottles in staterooms, and disposable covers could be seen on high-use items, like television remote controls. Inside cabins, which are interior and do not have windows or balconies, could initially stay unoccupied on sailings. For those of you wondering how our vegetable garden is performing, here is a photo from yesterday. �In the 3rd week in Brandon we visited Wicken Fen. This is (wait for it), a 254.5 hectare biological Site of Special Interest, a National Nature Reserve and a Nature Conservation Review site. A large part of it is owned and managed by the National Trust. it includes fenland, farmland, marsh and reed beds and we saw it all. A fen is a low and marshy or frequently flooded area of land and Wicken Fen is one of only 4 wild fens which still survive in the enormous Great Fen Basin of East Anglia. 99% of all the other fens have been made into farm land. It is managed in much the same way it always was, for example, the sedge (water reed) is harvested every year and sold for thatching. The first recorded sedge harvest at Wicken Fen was in 1414. I cannot even begin to describe all the birds, butterflies, dragonflies, swans etc that we saw. We walked around some of the trails and then we bought tickets to ride in a small boat with a guide on the recently cleared canals in the Fen. I loved the whole experience. �������I apologize for so many photos but between us Craig and I had about 15 photos which shows you how much we loved the place. So, from the top: walking through the grassland; a restored windmill used to irrigate nearby farms,; me in one of the bird hides (the British are big on birdwatching); Craig walking on another part of the trail; my new favorites - a bug hotel; on the part of the canal that had been given its annual dredging; and on the part of the canal which was still waiting to be dredged. Stats: as I haven’t posted these for a while: the US has 2.04 million cases (up 19,958 since yesterday) and 115K deaths. Michigan has 64,998 cases and 5,943 deaths. Kent County has 3,998 cases and 107 deaths. Some ares are trending down and some areas are continuing to rise. Thats it for today. The weather is cooler and less humid. Remember: 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_2020-06-11_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-92 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 2020-06-11 Title A name given to the resource Day 92 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/8b5b52d7b67f1d3629941fd2e361ba7a.pdf 60dcab5a244c324018b4e487ce207f78 PDF Text Text Day 93. by windoworks On next Monday (June 15) the hair and nail salons are allowed to open. Among the many ‘I’m not doing that again’ decisions I have made are - no more hair dye (I’m prepared to embrace the grey) and no more nail polish. I am prepared to return to my nail salon but no more nail polish. It’s too hard to manage for myself. As I type this my nails are the shortest they have been for years! So, I contacted the hair salon and the new hair stylist that Ben recommended (after he decided to retire from hairdressing), texted me back and we managed to set up a hair appointment for me. She is letting me come in early in the morning when there will be less clients there. So here are he conditions for my visit: The salon will no longer have a waiting area. When you arrive at the salon for your appointment, please call the salon or text me directly. When the client scheduled before you has exited the building we will call or text you to come in for your appointment. This will allow me to properly sanitize my station and tools between each appointment. Please wear a facemask into the salon. I will be wearing one while I work with you and ask that you wear one as I bring you to my station and/or when you are walking through the salon. If you forget your mask don’t stress, the salon will have disposable masks available for you. Additional Safety Measures. We have reorganized our stylist stations. At your next appointment you will notice quite a bit more space between each station. This is to ensure that all of our guests are able to maintain a safe distance from each other while they are with us. We have also added partitions between the shampoo bowls for your safety. All stylists and employees will have a temperature check daily upon arrival to the salon. If you yourself are not feeling well, please reschedule your appointment for a later date. Price Changes. The state of Michigan is requiring some specific changes to prevent the spread of Covid 19. To be compliant, we are spending money on items we never expected we would need. From building partitions to purchasing thermometers, HEPA filters, additional supplies, staff hours, and PPE…it’s all adding up. In order to keep things running smoothly, the salon will need to increase prices slightly. Please expect to pay $5 more per adult service. As ever, we appreciate your understanding and compassion! So that sounds exciting doesn’t it? Yesterday we ordered cheese (from The Cheese Lady - yum!) and reeds for Craig’s saxophone, all online. The cheese is in the cooler outside the store, and you call for your order at the music store. In both cases, the doors are locked. You call and they bring your purchases out to you. And also yesterday, I purchased 2 Charles Wysocki 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles online. I can pick them both up at Barnes & Noble at Rivertown Crossing Mall. Again, I wait in the car (which I describe on the phone) �and the assistant will bring them out to me. We drove past Trader Joe’s on the way to the music store and people were still lined up 6 feet apart, wearing masks and waiting to be admitted. This is the new routine. As you exit your car anywhere, you get out your mask and put it on. It’s becoming the same as putting your gloves and hat on in winter. It’s not comfortable wearing a mask, but its the right thing to do. There are still 130,000 houses in Michigan without power. There are an extraordinary number of really big trees down in streets around us and so far there is no sign of any cleanup. Another big concern is rising water levels in other dams across Michigan which may be in the same state of disrepair as the 2 near Midland were. Yesterday we had the first of our ‘proper’ virtual programs for the Women’s City Club. Grand Rapids’ Mayor Rosalynn Bliss talked to us via Zoom for almost an hour. We had submitted some questions and she answered most, and added a great deal about what was happening locally, statewide and nationally with COVID-19 and racism. She talked a great deal and it was a tribute to her that I never zoned out once. I also feel a great deal more informed. On Wednesday, the U.S. reached another dire landmark in its fight against COVID-19 after surpassing 2 million confirmed cases around the country. New cases are rising in at least 20 states, even as restrictions on daily life continue to ease across the country. The U.S. total represents more than 25% of the confirmed cases worldwide. More than a dozen states continue to show new highs in the number of coronavirus cases or hospitalizations weeks after beginning to reopen. The spikes provide disturbing data points in the ongoing tug of war between the economic costs of restrictions and the human cost of lifting them. Worse times are ahead. The preponderance of evidence indicates community transmission is increasing. We should be concerned about the rising numbers in some states like Arizona and Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina. These states have big outbreaks right now. This morning Florida is reporting a significant increase of cases overnight. It’s not a second wave as some people are saying. Most states never really got rid of the first wave. And in the “You couldn’t make this stuff up“ category: • A Maine facility that produces tests for Abbott Labs to detect the novel coronavirus has become the site of a viral outbreak. �• Tesla employees in California revealed that several of their colleagues tested positive for the coronavirus following chief executive Elon Musk’s reopening of the company’s main production facility last month in defiance of government public health orders. • Members of the D.C. National Guard who were deployed last week in response to the protests over George Floyd’s killing have tested positive, but a spokeswoman refuses to reveal how many troops have the virus. Two members of the Nebraska National Guard who were activated last week in Lincoln, Neb., also tested positive. I love that there’s a face palm emoji. I have begun making bread and bread rolls. Admittedly I use an almond flour packet, but the online bread delivery system seems to have broken down somehow, so I thoughtI had better start baking. I also try to use all fruit and vegetables and not throw anything out. I made gluten free macaroni cheese recently and we used up the leftovers by frying them in portions which was surprisingly delicious. We have cooked 3 meals a day since early March. It’s not that I don’t want to eat a take out meal, it just seems that I am more comfortable with homemade. Now truthfully, we do buy treats from Rise, our favorite gluten free bakery, and gf cupcakes from Cakabakery. But Cakabakery is only open 2 days a week and I always forget until the open day is over. Today’s risk assessment: 4. Keep higher risk activities as short as possible Brief exposure: Brief encounters, particularly those outside — like passing someone on the sidewalk or a runner who huffs and puffs past your picnic — are unlikely to make you sick. Face-to-face contact: Wear a mask, and keep close conversations short. We don’t know the level of exposure required to make you sick, but estimates range from a few hundred to 1,000 copies of the virus. In theory, you might reach the higher estimate after just five minutes of close conversation, given that a person might expel 200 viral particles a minute through speech. When health officials perform contact tracing, they typically look for people with whom you’ve spent at least 15 minutes in close contact. Indoor exposure: In an enclosed space, like an office, at a birthday party, in a restaurant or in a church, you can still become infected from a person across the room if you share the same air for an extended period of time. There’s no proven time limit that is safest, but based on contact tracing guidelines and the average rate at which we expel viral particles — through breathing, speaking and coughing — it’s best to keep indoor activities, like shopping or haircuts, to less than an hour. Even shorter is better. �As you make decisions, consider the volume of air space (open space is safer than a small meeting room), the number of people in the space (fewer is better) and how much time everyone is together (keep it brief). Okay, perhaps I’ll just get my hair cut. ��Just an Oliver fix for the day. And a note to make you laugh: at daycare they told Zoe that he babbles all day and the staff said to each other: OMG, imagine when he starts actually talking! That’s a true Benjamin. The next big day in Brandon. First we drove to the coast to Dunwich Heath and Beach which is a National Trust property. I was particularly taken with the beautiful heather on the cliffs. ������From the top: another of my sitting on the beach photos; Craig paddling (braver than me); eating our picnic lunch and that’s Sizemore B nuclear power station in the distance; the gorgeous heather and me sitting in one of those giant beach chairs - it was dammed difficult to get out of! This wasn’t the end of our day - we visited 2 other places on our way home but I’ll post them tomorrow. So, the rain has gone, the weather is cooler, the sun is shining and the wind has dropped. Stay healthy, stay safe and stay brave. We can do it! � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-06-12_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-93 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 2020-06-12 Title A name given to the resource Day 93 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/3b73a33d8d52ce13c653fef9e2e680d0.pdf 15c42fe1c8899ae7dfe4c0f376833509 PDF Text Text Day 94. by windoworks When I first began this Pandemic Diary I wrote about my feelings because, this was going to be over soon, right? After a few days I added the daily flashback feature. In the beginning I referred to friends and family by their initials in posts and it became more and more clumsy and confusing. Then my neighbor asked me to just put names in and so that change was made. Next, I added photos sent to me by friends from around the world. I added information about both my sons companies during the pandemic,and then I had to learn how to delete that information from those posts. Next, I decided to turn the flashback section into a vacation record instead of random photos. I began reading and researching and thinking ‘I wonder if my readers will find this interesting?’ At first I included all names and positions in quoted articles until my daughter told me that was long ad unwieldy. So I began to paraphrase and if I couldn’t remember the source I italicized the quote. Readers found that so much easier that now I italicize anything that isn’t my own words. Craig has observed that the posts are gradually getting longer, and they are. One friend said she skips over the Stats while another friend said they’re always interesting. Every day I decide what will be interesting and what will be overkill. My fact file increases and decreases every few days. Recently my friend Merrilyn sent me a blogpost by an American author. The post she sent me was about how the author writes her books. Writing is a whole life event for me. Before the pandemic I was continuing with my autobiography. I have written short stories and a novella and I tinker with the novella from time to time. But I love writing the blogpost. Before the pandemic, I mostly used it as a travel diary and an armchair travel experience for some friends who can no longer travel themselves. Occasionally I would write a piece if I was fired up about something. In the first few weeks of writing this diary, I refused to use the president’s name, citing the White House or the administration instead. Now I do use his name, but he will never deserve a capital letter from me, ever. Now here’s a question. How much longer will I write it? Well, I’m sending it to the Pandemic Archives at Grand Valley State University, so I think perhaps I should continue until we are ‘out of the woods’, but I can’t imagine when that will be. So keep reading, dear readers. I so appreciate you. The Auburn Readers Bookclub collected a really nice sum of money which we are donating to St Cecelia’s School of Music in Stephanie Burr’s name. It is enough to pay for a student for one year, I believe and I know Stephanie would be proud. This article sent to me by Zoe: �What has happened to statues – rolled into harbours, set aflame on their plinths, defaced with graffiti, hung with signs – is merely the visible form of what historians, buried in archives, wrestling with raw material, have been quietly doing to the myths of the past for decades, uncovering and tapping into computers – documenting a more complete account. The time for a public reckoning with the ongoing legacy of slavery, the horrors of colonial expansion, and the fact that we have not considered violence against people of colour, or women, to be of particular note, has come. We need to stop thinking about history as a kind of binary “positive” or “negative", as either nice or bad, but as something that reflects all of the wild chaos, dark violence, and glorious triumphs of humanity; the story of all of us. We could remove statues from plinths and place them at our height, or lower. We could place other figures around them, of the slaves they traded or controlled; show the massacres, the conflicts, the long hidden stories. We could create virtual reality resets, where you might look at a monument and its surrounds through the eyes of a slave, or soldier, a worker, or a maid. We could collect offensive statues and cluster them in museums where their stories would be fully told from myriad perspectives. Or we could grind them to dust and mix them with concrete, placing them on paths we walk on to a place, a country, where we not only accept the truth, but welcome it. Julie Baird, Sydney Morning Herald. And to show you the acrimony and dysfunction between the federal government and the states: • Trump renewed his threat to take federal action against demonstrators in a tweet to Washington State officials demanding that they crack down on protests in Seattle. “Take back your city NOW,” Trump wrote in a tweet directed at Mayor Jenny Durkan (D) and Gov. Jay Inslee (D). “If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game.” Durkan replied: “Go back to your bunker.” And this: • Kelly Wroblewski, director of infectious diseases at the Association of Public Health Laboratories, said the federal government is not even providing the kind of routine guidance it normally gives in screening for flu and other outbreaks. “The states are on their own,” she said. “There has been no coordination.” I think we all knew that some weeks ago. In New Zealand my son and his wife have flown to Queenstown in the South Island for a few days vacation. In Melbourne my youngest son has gone to the countryside with friends, also for a short vacation. It’s hard for me to imagine doing that. The last risk assessment point: Keep taking pandemic precautions �Already some people in many communities have stopped wearing masks, suspended social distancing and returned to their pre-pandemic socializing. Time will tell if case counts start to rise as a result, but in the coming months you would be wise to adopt the following habits. Keep a mask handy. Wear a mask in enclosed spaces, when you shop or go to the office and anytime you are in close contact with people outside your household. Practice social distancing — staying six feet apart — when you are with people who live outside your household. Keep social activities outdoors. Wash hands frequently, and be mindful about touching public surfaces (elevator buttons, hand rails, subway poles, and other high-touch areas) Adopt stricter quarantine practices if you or someone in your circle is at higher risk. And just to emphasize this point: Hospitalizations for coronavirus cases have been on the rise in at least nine states since Memorial Day: Texas, North and South Carolina, California, Oregon, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah and Arizona. More than a dozen states, plus Puerto Rico, are recording their highest averages of new cases since the pandemic began. And the total number of new cases also continues to increase worldwide. Experts say this is not just because testing has become more widespread. As states continue to push ahead with reopening, these are flashing red lights that we are not out of the woods, the danger of a second wave remains high and bringing folks back to work – while necessary for economic recovery – is fraught. Americans may be moving on, but the virus is not. One crucial caveat is that the virus will outlast the summer — everywhere. During the 1918-19 flu, transmission rates fell in the warmer months, only to soar again in the fall. “People thought it was over,” as Apoorva Mandavilli, a science reporter at The Times, said, “and stopped taking precautions.” And just to lighten the mood: Attention, bears of Yosemite National Park! You’ve apparently been taking advantage of having the run of the place, but the tourists are coming back. After shutting down in March, the California park plans to reopen on Thursday — with restrictions, of course. Before you worry about encountering some free solo climbers, bear friends, note that only about half the average number of June visitors will be allowed in, each car must make an online reservation and park shuttles won’t be running. Apparently the park rangers are waiting with baited breath to see what happens. I have more Oliver photos to choose from. ��Painting at daycare. Note the concentration and the yellow paint suspiciously around his mouth. That’s because it was banana flavored. I can’t quite wrap my head around banana flavored paint. Today’s flashback. Still on the day we visited Dunwich Beach and Heath, on our way home we drove into the parking lot at Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station. Firstly, I was surprised that we could drive into the parking lot. Sizewell B is a pressurized water reactor - the only commercial one in the UK. If you wish to read more about Sizewell A,B and C, I recommend Wikipedia. After the first technical sentence, my eyes glazed over. ����From the top: the view of Sizemore B across Dunwich Heath; me standing next to spent nuclear fuel rods; how the reactor works; and the view of the reactor from the parking lot. I was really surprised to learn that we could go inside a visitors center and have a guided tour. Of course we weren’t allowed into the reactor area and our guide was really sweet and very reassuring but honestly, I felt so much calmer after we drove out of the parking lot. I’m sure it was completely safe and again, I’m glad I did it, and I never have to do it again. There is one more stop on our way home and we’ll talk about that tomorrow. Remember - it isn’t over yet, even though the sun is shining and the birds are singing. It’s still out there and perhaps its just waiting for us to be careless. � 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_2020-06-13_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-94 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 2020-06-13 Title A name given to the resource Day 94 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/516d7b0e63de138b87f2de23d8a97102.pdf ab1af67f5edc72b7ec52b1a014414786 PDF Text Text Day 95 by windoworks First, I have to correct something I wrote yesterday. The paint Oliver was playing with is not banana flavored but it might be edible. It’s certainly not toxic. Now that I’ve cleared that up, this morning I am back to trying to decide what to include in today’s post. First up, negligence and self interest at their absolute best: Trump fans seeking tickets to his rally in Tulsa next week must acknowledge a disclaimer that they won't sue the campaign if they get sick. “By attending the Rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.” and others associated with the event liable, states a notice on the rally's registration page. The president has repeatedly disparaged his own administration's anti-contagion recommendations, and said he wants big crowds at his events despite the health risks. The schools reopening debate continues with schools and colleges unsure of future resurgences. When can America’s schools safely reopen? That is the question on the minds of millions of parents, caregivers and yes, even kids. It was also the subject of Thursday's Congressional hearing before the Senate’s Education Committee. And, wouldn’t you know, the answer to the question was, “It’s complicated.” First of all, reopening schools will be expensive. Lots of schools will struggle to provide students with masks, gloves and sanitizer, hire cleaning staff and nurses, conduct testing and contact tracing, and plan for socially distant classrooms. Yes, you heard that, right: some school districts will likely see a mix of remote and in-person learning, so wrap your heads around more homeschooling. All summer camps have been canceled which is an integral part of summer life for some families. In Grand Rapids the Public Museum posted this: Virtual Camp Curious kicks off on Monday! Camps are offered throughout the summer with one day and multi-day options. Choose from a variety of camp offerings for kids ages pre-K through ninth grade, starting as low as $20. Campers will investigate, learn and play through the use of common household items, observations of organisms in their neighborhood, and the GRPM’s digital Collections. New camps this year include Survivors and Time Travelers. Learn about plant and animal adaptations, and explore ancient civilizations. My neighbors across the road are both school teachers and they reported that the sudden switch to online classes was not a success. In fact some districts in Kent County gave up online teaching efforts and simply said that the summer vacation would start early this year. It is all very well for institutions to set in place �all the rules, restrictions, routines etc., but I wonder how many parents will feel comfortable when the first day back arrives. So some big questions. This article was long and I have cut it down significantly but it answers some questions that we all have. From the Alabama Political Reporter newspaper: Dr David Thrasher. Montgomery-area pulmonologist and the head of pulmonology at Jackson Hospital. COVID-19 originated in China, most likely in November or December of 2019. COVID-19 is just another instance in the long history of the so-called zoonoses-diseases that jump from animals to humans. The domestication of the horse led to the virus responsible for the common cold in humans as well as the Spanish Flu. The domestication of chickens gave humans chickenpox, shingles and various strains of the bird flu. Pigs were the source of influenza, measles and smallpox. Tuberculosis emerged from cattle. I get frustrated and actually mad when I hear people say that COVID-19 is no more deadly or dangerous than the seasonal flu. These statements clearly come from people who’ve never treated patients in an intensive care unit with COVID-19 patients. I’ve heard this from physicians as well as laypeople. I have treated every seasonal flu episode since 1983. This is not close to seasonal flu. Masks: This isn’t Republican versus Democrat or Auburn versus Alabama. We are all on the same team. Wearing a mask helps protect your neighbor. It doesn’t make you a criminal. It doesn’t make you a bank robber. It simply helps protect your neighbor. Some people tell me I don’t like to wear a mask because it’s hot. Believe me, if you don’t like wearing a mask, you are really not going to like my ventilator! When will it be over? The short answer is when a vaccine is available. And this news story: In pretty amazing medical news, doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago announced Thursday that they've performed the first successful double-lung transplant on a COVID-19 patient in the United States. The lungs of a woman in her 20s became so damaged by COVID-19 that she could not survive without her blood being oxygenated outside her body on an ECMO machine. Following the procedure’s success, doctors are evaluating five other patients to determine whether they are candidates for a lung transplant So to lighten the mood, this photo is from the Fiskars Mill area in Finland where my friend Auli and her husband Juhani went out for a day trip which included a very nice looking lunch (from the other photos posted). ��Yesterday we drove downtown to walk around the GVSU campus and cross over the Blue Bridge. Many of the particle board covers over the doors and windows of shops etc had been removed and business was slowly starting up again. Here I am on the Blue Bridge. The river has risen again but most notable is its chocolate brown color. The 3 main hotels downtown are still completely boarded shut, with the Amway Grand having one side door access open. I wonder how hotels will survive? As I write this, there are 2 more hotels almost finished construction downtown. There was talk of building a second convention center as Grand Rapids has become a very popular convention/conference destination. I’m not sure what will happen with that. The city is actively discussing ‘social spaces’ for downtown and perhaps some neighborhoods. I think it involves closing part of some streets to allow outside performance spaces and dining areas. The plan is to make them temporary and then if they work well, convert them to permanent spaces. I like this idea. Here’s something Craig discovered near our house on one of his walks yesterday with Murphy. ���A help yourself library, food and game spot! Also yesterday I noticed this: ��The first rose of the season despite the hard frost which burnt some of the leaves. Oliver: it was a big weekend for Oliver. Firstly on Saturday morning he visited his fathers house for the first time while mum had her hair cut. Here he is playing with Christian’s dogs. �Then on Sunday Christian took Oliver to Ebenezer on the outskirts of Sydney for a family birthday celebration. Here’s Oliver with his cousins on his fathers side. �I think he had a lovely time being cuddled by everyone. Back to Brandon. On our way home from Dunwich Heath and Sizemore B we came across this ruin of Leiston Abbey. It was originally built in 1183 and was a Canons Regular (White canons) rule. I really don’t �understand those distinctions so you can look this up for yourself. In 1977 it was purchased to become the home of Pro Corda Trust, a center for the training and education of chamber musicians. The center was closed but we wandered around the ruins. ���Most early evenings in Brandon, Craig would cross the road from our cottage, walk down an alley and come out on Gashouse Drove . I think Gashouse comes a building that used to be a storage for gas products but has been converted to a private dwelling now. A drove describes the medieval path that leads from Brandon to Santon Downham and they would drive cattle or sheep to the trading port on the river at Santon Downham. ��There were houses on one side at the start and horse farms on the other. He always stopped to say hello to the horses. Thats it for today. 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_2020-06-14_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-95 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 2020-06-14 Title A name given to the resource Day 95 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/ef959fc85a5208fded9279bb64ddcfe2.pdf 0361b76b92534c453511058a04189069 PDF Text Text Day 96 by windoworks Should we go out? Should we stay home? Should we visit stores? Should we continue to order online? Are our state figures leveling or are they rising again? In some ways it was easier 14 weeks ago when we began this staying in place. At that time it felt like outside was the enemy and of course, it was the tail end of winter. Now it is warm and sunny, everyone is gardening and sitting on their front porches and chatting at a safe distance to their neighbors. But some have thrown caution to the winds and are attending protests (commendable, but with a mask please), others are just ignoring signs and going inside stores as if it was June 2019. Everything has been canceled, including all 4th of July celebrations, and we Americans love a public holiday and all the parades and fun runs and food booths that accompany them. All gone for this year - and who knows about next year? ArtPrize is canceled and perhaps that’s the end of that venture. It was interesting, sometimes exciting, sometimes disappointing, always overcrowded and occasionally irritating. It’s founder, Nick DeVos, just wanted to start people talking about constitutes art - and we certainly argued about that! Everyone became an art critic. The cynics among us say that ArtPrize was begun as a way to bring people downtown, and it certainly did. It also brought visitors from other states and some overseas artists in the first few years. Our neighbors are having their house painted. It’s going to be a bright blue shade. It’s a bold statement and it makes me think about the color of our house - which has Craig groaning. And no, this isn’t another of my ‘projects’, its one Craig has been talking about. He’s thinking of painting part of the back wall of the house and that might be a good spot to try a different color on the top half of the wall. Yesterday Craig harvested the 2 rows of lettuce - they were just about to bolt, I think. So we gave 3 big bags to our neighbors and kept a big bag for ourselves. Then he planted more lettuce seeds, red stalk radish micro greens and some smooth leaf spinach seeds. We’ll see how those go. And like everyone else in our neighborhood, we began cleaning out the basement, completely cleaned out and rearranged the garage and put some ‘treasures’ out on the curb for free. This has been happening all over Eastown as people rid themselves of items they’ll never use again. Our other neighbor, TJ, the builder, is run off his feet and has had to turn some jobs down. This all comes from being stuck inside your house and thinking things like ‘I hate this kitchen’. Usually you never notice the flaws in your house until you’re there inside for 14 weeks straight. And yes, I have an area I would love to change - but that’ll keep for another year or so. �An ongoing discussion: To fix policing, we must first recognize how much we have come to over-rely on law enforcement. We turn to the police in situations where years of experience and common sense tell us that their involvement is unnecessary, and can make things worse. We ask police to take accident reports, respond to people who have overdosed and arrest, rather than cite, people who might have intentionally or not passed a counterfeit $20 bill. We call police to roust homeless people from corners and doorsteps, resolve verbal squabbles between family members and strangers alike, and arrest children for behavior that once would have been handled as a school disciplinary issue. Here are 8 policies that may curtail police violence under the hashtag; #8cantwait BAN CHOKEHOLDS & STRANGLEHOLDS Allowing officers to choke or strangle civilians results in the unnecessary death or serious injury of civilians. Both chokeholds and all other neck restraints must be banned in all cases. REQUIRE DE-ESCALATION Require officers to de-escalate situations, where possible, by communicating with subjects, maintaining distance, and otherwise eliminating the need to use force. REQUIRE WARNING BEFORE SHOOTING Require officers to give a verbal warning in all situations before using deadly force. REQUIRES EXHAUST ALL ALTERNATIVES BEFORE SHOOTING Require officers to exhaust all other alternatives, including non-force and less lethal force options, prior to resorting to deadly force. DUTY TO INTERVENE Require officers to intervene and stop excessive force used by other officers and report these incidents immediately to a supervisor. BAN SHOOTING AT MOVING VEHICLES Ban officers from shooting at moving vehicles in all cases, which is regarded as a particularly dangerous and ineffective tactic. While some departments may restrict shooting at vehicles to particular situations, these loopholes allow for police to continue killing in situations that are all too common. 62 people were killed by police last year in these situations. This must be categorically banned. REQUIRE USE OF FORCE CONTINUUM Establish a Force Continuum that restricts the most severe types of force to the most extreme situations and creates clear policy restrictions on the use of each police weapon and tactic. REQUIRE COMPREHENSIVE REPORTING Require officers to report each time they use force or threaten to use force against civilians. �Comprehensive reporting includes requiring officers to report whenever they point a firearm at someone, in addition to all other types of force. Yesterday we went to Tassell Park to check out its suitability for the proposed Women’s City Club picnic lunch while socially distancing in mid July. It was a cool but gorgeous day and the park is lovely. ��The park is next to the Thornapple River and has a working dam. The water was high, fast and very brown. Tassell Park had a number of statues and Craig liked this one. �He and Murphy walked past the community gardens again and look at the progress! ��And again in Brandon. One weekend, with a lot of fanfare and shopkeepers telling us we had to come along, Brandon held its annual Ferry Days festival. On Saturday night it kicked off with a folk concert at one of the local pubs next to the Little Ouse River. We walked down and ate dinner at the pub and then went into the back room for the concert. It was great fun. We were introduced as special American visitors staying in the town (which elicited a lot of Why Brandon questions from the locals). It turned out that the main band was a group of 3 famous folk musicians and the Brandon Folk Club was very proud to have booked them. They played a number of instruments and one of them sang. ���From the top: the leader of the group, Nick Hart, singing. Next, the trio playing and finally Nick introduced us to Stepping, which is like tap dancing but simpler. Tomorrow we will look at Sunday - the main Ferry Day celebration and all the fun. This morning there is a serious note of alarm sounding in the press. Cases are beginning to rise again in a larger number of states. Hospital wards are beginning to fill up again. My neighbor tells me that Michigan numbers are beginning to rise. In research it appeared we had 59.000 cases on Friday and 65,000 cases this morning. I cannot confirm that rise and the figures always vary from different state and county sources. Beijing has locked down an area around a live market due to a new hot spot outbreak and is testing everyone in the area. It gets a bit depressing sometimes, doesn’t it? So, stay safe and 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_2020-06-15_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-96 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 2020-06-15 Title A name given to the resource Day 96 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/a32bbd4576ef4c008d47c413d425c871.pdf 2f3b0a2f7fa02177ef739f0c76b8cf52 PDF Text Text Day 97 by windoworks This pandemic is changing our lives and although it would be more than enough by itself, we have other earth shattering events happening all around the world. There is so much distress and anger that small successes get overlooked. Yesterday they released a group of platypuses back into their natural habitat in Canberra Australia. The bushfires (remember them?) burnt the area around their pond home so badly that they had to be rescued, treated and housed at Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney. The zoo opened a wildlife refuge and rehabilitation center to cope with many of the injured and displaced animals from the fires. Here’s a video link. I don’t usually put links in but this is one I felt strongly about posting. You have to click on the link and then click on the video which will take you to a twitter post. Watch it all the way to the end. It’s hard to watch, its shocking and mostly, it make me think hard. My friend Fred posted it and I am reposting it from his newsletter.https://www.upworthy.com/woman-puts-protests-into-historicalcontext And here’s a poem that my friend Merrilyn sent me: And people stayed at home And read books And listened And they rested And did exercises And made art and played And learned new ways of being And stopped and listened More deeply Someone meditated, someone prayed Someone met their shadow And people began to think differently And people healed. And in the absence of people who Lived in ignorant ways Dangerous, meaningless and heartless, The earth also began to heal And when the danger ended and People found themselves They grieved for the dead And made new choices �And dreamed of new visions And created new ways of living And completely healed the earth Just as they were healed. And speaking of art, here is some of the most inspiring artworks from downtown Grand Rapids. ���And here’s an interesting article: �LaDonna Norman, who is organizing a movement to defund the Grand Rapids Police Department, explained the movement in the streets is inspired by decades of discrimination and abuse the black community has faced. Norman spoke of modern-day redlining and other ways that the black community is treated differently, and she believes more aggressive police tactics are used on black people and in black neighborhoods. In Grand Rapids, protesters took to the streets on May 30 to demand changes to policing and issues of equality. But the scene in the city’s downtown area devolved into a riot late that evening and about 100 businesses were damaged, seven police cars were burned and several businesses were looted. The chaos caused an estimated $2.4 million in damage, according to city officials. Defunding the Grand Rapids Police Department would mean reducing its budget, she said, which accounts for more than $56 million in expenditures from the city’s general fund. Norman said the money could be better spent on community relations and resources such as rehabilitation, reentry, and counseling for mental illness, for example. For years we’ve been harassed and brutalized and I think despite all the efforts to hold police accountable, they have continued to act violently toward the black community without accountability and without resolution," Norman said. Meanwhile in Atlanta: Medical examiners in Atlanta say the death of Rayshard Brooks is a homicide. Bodycam video released by the Atlanta police department shows Brooks calmly and politely responding to police. Brooks, who is black, grabbed a taser from police and pointed it at an officer while running away. The officer who shot Brooks twice in the back has been fired. A second officer nearby has been placed on administrative duty. Atlanta’s police chief has resigned. And yesterday in the Supreme Court: Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined the Supreme Court’s four liberals this morning to rule that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination “because of sex,” protects gay and transgender employees. Last night I joined a webinar with over a thousand other Michigander women, while our governor, attorney general, federal senators and congresswomen (and many others) spoke about Joe Biden and supporting his run for President. Governor Whitmer was wearing her “That Woman from Michigan” tshirt and she encouraged us all to be that woman. I want a t-shirt that says: Proud to be one of Those Women from Michigan. I loved listening to Dana Nessel, our Attorney General. She said when she was running, that she would be prepared to take the administration to court if necessary. What she didn’t expect was that as the AG she would be taking them to court almost every day! Yesterday we walked in Aquinas College and went through the forest where the Stations of the Cross are. It was cool, quiet and green. �I don’t remember where this came from, but listen up people: �We hate to break it to you, but the surge in new coronavirus cases reported around the country isn’t the second wave of the virus. We’re still in the first one. Prominent forecasters are predicting a slow, steady accumulation of additional deaths between now and Oct. 1. What’s actually scarier? A true second wave of COVID-19 infections could still show up later in this year. Growing evidence shows the coronavirus will likely spread more easily as the weather turns cold. And I had to print this - because Andrew Cuomo: Some governors are threatening to shut their states back down as covid-19 cases and hospitalizations climb. Mask-less New Yorkers gathered shoulder-to-shoulder outside bars and restaurants over the weekend as if they had entirely forgotten about social distancing. “Don’t make me come down there …” New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) tweeted in response to a video of one gathering. Here’s another photo of Oliver: �This one came with the words: What? Is this not how everyone eats? The Sunday Ferry Days celebration in Brandon. There was a lot to do and see and I have a very sweet and amusing video of Craig being taught to step by Nick but I can’t seem to add videos to this blog, so you’ll just have to imagine it. ����From the top: the bridge over the Little Ouse River which replaced the ferry. Next, Nick teaching a group of children stepping. Then 2 photos of a play called Imaginary Menagerie. It wasn’t as comfortable sitting on those hay bales as you might think. Tomorrow there will be more excursions from Brandon. I hope you are enjoying them as much as I am remembering them. So, to all of you across the world - stay safe, stay well and smile. � 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_2020-06-16_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-97 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 2020-06-16 Title A name given to the resource Day 97 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/40d9b4af04c3655ec3dc3972bfebc859.pdf 83010182c89a2140467c4e73db93bfe9 PDF Text Text Day 98 by windoworks Today marks 14 weeks since we began staying at home. Never in my wildest dreams. This pandemic has thrown us all out of our ruts. You know, that place where you feel most comfortable, your daily routine, your fast held beliefs, your assurance that you know your place in the world and you are sure of everyone else’s too. And along comes this cataclysmic event and nothing is familiar. You are surrounded by uncertainty, anxiety, grief and anger and the great unknown. I think that’s the hardest part: the great unknown. It is a time of great introspection. We all have a lot of time to think about our lives and about how we live them and should we make changes? I watch the great mass of people stirring, awakening and standing up and demanding to be heard. And demanding that as we are now outside our rut, in the extreme uncomfortable, now is the time to look at ourselves and begin to think. In my life there have been a number of ‘thrown out of the rut’ moments. They were always awful and they have always led to a powerful, positive change. I live in hope that after everything resolves we will all be living as our better selves. So to lighten the mood (I do try not to climb on my soapbox too often), here’s what Craig spent most of yesterday afternoon doing: ��Because when he said to me that he wanted to repaint the back of the house, I said: why white? And we compromised on white on the bottom half and red on the top. Now all we have to do is decide on which red. And no, this wasn’t one of my projects. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said, “I understand how people must be very tired of this at this point. But the virus doesn’t care that we’re tired. The virus is still out there. And this: • British clinical trials found that dexamethasone, a widely available steroid, reduced the death rate for covid-19 patients with severe lung damage. It’s the first time that a drug has appeared to increase the odds of survival. • A group of Tulsa residents and business owners is suing to prevent President Trump from holding a large indoor campaign rally there on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma city’s mayor, G.T. Bynum (R), says he won’t use his emergency powers to block the event even though he has concerns about it. • Australia will probably keep its borders closed through the start of 2021, according to a government minister. • Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández said late Tuesday that he has tested positive for the �coronavirus but was suffering only mild symptoms and would continue in his job. He said two of his aides and his wife, Ana García, have also tested positive • New Zealand announced changes to the country’s quarantine policy Wednesday, following the revelation that two women, who traveled from Britain, were given special permission to visit a dying relative despite the fact that one of them was experiencing covid-19 symptoms. They came into contact with at least 320 people. • Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Tuesday that the state will not shut down again, despite hitting a record high of 2,783 new cases in 24 hours. At this point I feel we need a Oliver photo, because babies. ����I gave you a triple dose to make you smile. We have begun walking in the mornings. Yesterday we drove out to Ravine Park (my choice) and walked along the track by the Grand River. We saw a big turtle sunning himself on a log but he jumped into the water before Craig could get a photo. ����And yes, that is a snake sunning itself on a log in the water. As always, walking by the water always lowers my anxiety levels and it was quiet and green and the bird sounds and the croaking frog made it a wonderful treat for the day. Yes, we’re still in Brandon. I had insisted that we should make as many day excursions as possible and in going through the photos, we certainly saw a lot. One day we drove to Covehithe Beach and Nature Reserve. This beach lies on the North Sea and to get to it you have to walk alongside farmers fields. ����This is the favorite sort of beach for me - wild and empty. You can see the weather was wild too. There’s the obligatory photo of me sitting on the beach and then there’s the pig farm we walked past, both going to the beach and going back to our car. Tomorrow more adventures. Two days ago, I was bringing the hummingbird feeder inside to refill it (they had drunk it dry!) when a hummingbird flew around me as if to say - hurry up! I have babies to feed. They drink from the feeder all day long and I love watching them. I also love watching the pair of woodpeckers (who really like seed blocks) and the pair of cardinals and the different finches that appear from time to time. And one day a few weeks ago, an Oriole kept trying to drink from the hummingbird feeder. I wonder how the bears are coping in Yosemite with the sudden influx of humans? Chin up, buttercup. I’ll speak to 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_2020-06-17_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-98 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 2020-06-17 Title A name given to the resource Day 98 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/5a2fa0bf8c7c8e7e274fd3b9bf787abb.pdf 7bcb42c5a39272a862f88b7362bb2391 PDF Text Text Day 99. by windoworks First of all - nearly 100 days. 100 days! I remember when I thought 70 days was ridiculous. The year is passing in extraordinary circumstances. This morning is one of those times where I don’t know where to start. There can be the tendency to be weighed down by the constant anxiety, anger and negativity swirling around us. We are still 10 weeks (by my calculation) away fro Grand Valley State University opening and it seems to be going full steam ahead. Here’s part of an interesting and possibly alarming article: Many university leaders aren’t sure how well on-campus living and in-person classes will work during this pandemic. Some acknowledge it may not work at all. It will require radical changes to the normal campus experience, like canceling many activities, rotating which students can return (to keep dorms from being too full) and continuing to hold classes online (to protect professors). This approach is likely to frustrate students — and it still might not prevent new coronavirus outbreaks. Nearly all distinctive parts of a campus experience, including parties, meals and extracurriculars, revolve around close social contact, often indoors. So what explains the surge of “We’re open!” announcements? Competitive pressure, in part. Many colleges will face serious financial problems if they lose a year of tuition and other revenue. Now professors and administrators have begun publicly criticizing reopening plans: “My suspicion,” Susan Dynarski, a University of Michigan economist, wrote on Twitter, is that “colleges are holding out hope of in-person classes in order to keep up enrollments.” She added: “If they tell the difficult truth now, many students will decide to take a year off,” which “will send college finances into a tailspin.” Here’s the last 2 photos from downtown that Craig took. ��The mask or not to mask debate continues apace. My friend Rich said it perfectly - its all about respect, that is respecting my right to stay safe and well as opposed to your right to freedom to choose. Freedom to choose means freedom to choose to make me sick. And if you’re still not sure, I offer this: �It’s the second row from the top that catches my attention, because there’s me on the right, masked, and still at a high risk. And here’s what I have discovered. If you are out walking in the sunshine, you can have the mask tied around your neck and if someone comes near you - voila! You just pull it up over your mouth and nose! If there is no one near you the entire time you are walking, then you don’t need to pull it up. But inside anywhere except your own home - WEAR THAT DAMN MASK! Or, don’t visit stores, bars, hair salons, nail salons - order online and learn to live with long, unruly hair. I heard that all US airlines have been lax about insisting on masks and have now been shamed into insisting passengers wear a mask or don’t board the plane. They had to be shamed into this! Really at this point, I’m speechless. �And here’s one of the reasons for this laxity in general: The Trump administration has largely stopped treating the coronavirus as a crisis, with the president saying in an interview Wednesday night that it was “fading away.” The White House’s task force now meets just twice a week. Experts like Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx speak to the president less often. The country’s designated “testing czar” has returned to his old job. With federal leadership receding and cases climbing in many places, state officials have been left to figure out how to handle the situation on their own. This saying dates from the 1600s, and it is as true today as it was then: The fish rots from the head. What does this mean? It comes from the idea that after a fish is caught and killed, it first begins to spoil at the head. Nowadays it is used to describe the idea that leadership is the root cause of an organizations failure and demise. It is true whether that organization is a country or a company. I think we have the perfect example here with our president and his minions and sadly, I think the rot has already begun to spread down. Reopening isn't going well in many places. Data indicate that the country has yet to quash the first wave of the virus — let alone a second one. Florida, Texas, Arizona and Oklahoma are among approximately a dozen states seeing a surge in cases and hospitalizations. From Phoenix to Myrtle Beach, Houston to Orlando, restaurants are closing again; this time, it’s not because owners fear that someone in their midst might catch the coronavirus — it’s because they know that they already have. And because we know that pandemics come with other catastrophes such as floods - now we have fires. Wildfires are rampaging across parts of the Desert Southwest and California, where an active start to the summer fire season is underway as some states in the region are seeing a spike in coronavirus cases. Continued dry, hot and windy weather is forecast in the vicinity of the Bush Fire raging northeast of Phoenix, which nearly doubled in size Monday night into early Tuesday. As of Wednesday morning it became the seventh-largest fire in Arizona history. On Tuesday, Arizona hit a new high for daily new cases, reporting 2,392 positive tests. This was the 11th day this month that the state set a new case high, according to a Washington Post analysis. The number of covid-19 hospitalizations in Arizona has increased by 81 percent since Memorial Day, with 1,506 people now hospitalized. Inpatient beds across the state are at 80 percent capacity. And because, its Andrew Cuomo: Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order requiring every local government — in collaboration with community members — to redesign the state's more than 500 police forces by April 2021 or risk losing state funding. �So enough chitchat, do it now or we’ll take your funding away. That’s one way of starting a meaningful conversation. I am putting this Oliver photo here because so far its been a tough read: ��Yasss, that great big TV which I just have to tip my head back so far to see. And I have to hold on to the cupboard door to stop myself from falling backwards and hitting my head on one of my toys (which I have done before, so I know it hurts). Yesterday we went walking at Fairplains Cemetery because there were 2 other people there, far, far away. Everyone else was dead (I can’t believe I typed that). From New Zealand, the Church of the Good Shepherd at Tekapo, midwinter. �One of our next excursions while living in Brandon, was to Knetishall Heath. This is both a biological Site of Special Interest and a nature reserve. It’s an area where wild ponies and cattle graze. ����So first we had our picnic lunch and then we walked along the trails. The ponies just stood in the way and we ended up edging cautiously around them. We saw several groups of ponies, all in gorgeous condition. They eat the wild grasses and keep the trails clear. What an amazing experience! Another sunny warm day. Keep 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_2020-06-18_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-99 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 2020-06-18 Title A name given to the resource Day 99 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/db520f75720a7757776abbd943729074.pdf 9d60152c7dfc1f3b5411fa2625776f80 PDF Text Text Day 100. by windoworks So here we are, 100 days. (Silence while I think about that). Earlier this year - during the pandemic - Britain celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE Day. This is the day that marks the formal acceptance by the Allies of WW2 of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces, on May 8 1945 and this marked the end of WW2 in Europe. This year it was celebrated in a socially distant manner and it featured Dame Vera Lynn. She was a popular singer who entertained the troops through the war and her songs became a hallmark of hope to the public throughout the war. Dame Vera Lynn died yesterday - she was 103 years old. Here are the lyrics to one of her songs which remains relevant today: We'll meet again Don't know where Don't know when But I know we'll meet again some sunny day Keep smiling through Just like you always do 'Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away So will you please say hello To the folks that I know Tell them I won't be long They'll be happy to know That as you saw me go I was singing this song We'll meet again Don't know where Don't know when But I know we'll meet again some sunny day… Today is Juneteenth. Juneteenth (a portmanteau of June and nineteenth; (also known as Freedom Day,Jubilee Day, and Liberation Day) is an unofficial American holiday and an official Texasstate holiday, celebrated annually on the 19th of June in the United Statesto commemorate Union army general Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in the city of Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that all slaves in Texas were now free.Although the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed them almost two and a half years earlier and the American Civil War had largely ended with the defeat of �the Confederate States in April, Texas was the most remote of the slave states, with a low presence of Union troops, so enforcement of the proclamation had been slow and inconsistent. This year, there are moves to have it made a National Holiday and today and tomorrow there are a number of celebrations here in Grand Rapids. In any other year I would attend these celebrations and enjoy them - but not this year. Hopefully next year. Yesterday brought some new things. First, I had applied to become a member of Imperfect Foods, a food delivery site I found online. They wrote back to me and said, sorry we’re full but we’ve put you on the waiting list. Last week they let me know I was off the waiting list and I could begin ordering. Like many other food delivery services, they offer boxes that you can amend. I had opted for fruit and vegetables but I took 2 items out and added some other grocery items. Yesterday morning this big box of groceries arrived. It was a box of surprises and delights. Imperfect Foods are items that are mislabeled or blemished and don’t cost as much as the perfect specimens in the store. They even asked me to reuse the box in a responsible way. The second new thing was that although my neighbor Amy and I had been talking either over the fence or out the front on the sidewalk, yesterday I invited her to sit at the other end of our front porch on our porch swing, and we talked for about 30 minutes - about nothing and everything. It was wonderful. The third thing was fireflies. Fireflies signal the start of summer for me and last night there were lots of them. Also yesterday: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration's attempt to dismantle the program protecting undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, a reprieve for nearly 650,000 recipients known as “dreamers.” We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Roberts wrote. He added: “We address only whether the [Department of Homeland Security] complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action. Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients. That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner.” This marks the second landmark decision in a week by SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States). The first one was : The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a bombshell ruling Monday that effectively makes it illegal for businesses across the nation to fire employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. In the �6-3 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay or transgender employees from employment discrimination, giving the LGBTQ rights movement another big victory from the nation’s highest court. SCOTUS hears arguments based on the Constitution, the rules and Amendments by which we are all supposed to live. The present Supreme Court has been seen as predominantly right leaning, but these 2 rulings lean away from the right and are based on constitutional law. trump then tweeted that the Supreme Court didn’t seem to like him which brought on some of the funniest responses I have read. And an update on the ‘do masks make difference’ question: A hair stylist in Missouri was diagnosed with covid-19 in late May, and she ended up directly exposing 84 customerswho had sat just inches from her face for up to 30 minutes each. She had symptoms, but wore a face mask; salons were one of the few places where people were required to wear them. Because of that, health officials say,none of her customers was infected. The result appears to be one of the clearest realworld examples of the ability of masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus. This morning I am adding the first of these: ���Two more tomorrow. So, a hundred days of cooking 3 meals a day; of shopping on the internet; of wiping down all things delivered to the house; of talking every day via FaceBook to Zoe and Oliver; of reading and copying every interesting item for later use; of watching the seasons change through the TV room window; of watching every new series available on TV and one hundred days of writing this blogpost every morning. Brandon: the next outing (I think, or the days might be slightly askew) we visited Cromer. This is a coastal town. It is famous for the Cromer crab which tourists devour by the bucketful. I am allergic to crab so my �lunch didn’t include it. Cromer is also noted for its Lifeboat Station, situated at the end of the pier. There has been a lifeboat in operation at Cromer for two centuries. �����From the top: me walking along the pier. Me standing on the beach. The huge lifeboat. The ramp it goes down to the water which is the same ramp the lifeboat has to be winched up again and lastly, the obligatory photo of me sitting on the beach. To all my friends, family and readers: keep smiling through. � 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_2020-06-19_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-100 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 2020-06-19 Title A name given to the resource Day 100 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/799c49fb7fbeddf8596d7685633bd2e1.pdf 71c8f2931410c06fdfa894a666b80fc8 PDF Text Text Day 101 by windoworks This is a morning of conflicting emotions. In spite of everything, trump is going ahead with the first of his new campaign rallies in Tulsa Oklahoma. In Tulsa — where President Trump plans to hold a campaign rally Saturday — cases hit a new high on Friday. The state’s Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal of a lawsuit Friday seeking to block the president from holding the event, which local officials and residents fear could worsen the spread of the coronavirus in the city. Reports online have shown his followers camping out in long lines for 2 days in order to get a good seat inside. They have no intention of wearing a mask, they have brought small children and family members in the older at risk bracket. They are excited and eager for the experience. What none of these people are considering is the capacity of the ICU in their local hospitals. As they don’t believe in the existence of the virus, they aren’t concerned about the consequences. �On Thursday, Gov Whitmer extended the State of Emergency for Michigan to July 16 and possibly longer. What does that tell us? This gives the governor the powers to issue emergency orders to close businesses, suspend evictions and take other steps. She has been significantly silent about putting the rest of the state into Level 5 which has much less restrictions. But it hasn’t been a great week for trump. Facebook and Twitter both pushed back against Trump’s use of inflammatory material yesterday. Facebook removed advertisements by the Trump campaign that prominently featured a red triangle that �the Nazis used to classify Communist political prisoners during World War II. The ad used it in connection with antifa, a loose collective of anti-fascist protesters. And yesterday, the Attorney-General (who is also not having his best week) announced the stepping down of US Attorney Geoffrey Berman and replacing him with Jay Clayton, a business man with NO legal experience noted anywhere I could find. Berman replied No, that’s not legal. And besides, I haven’t finished my investigation yet. I know from overseas friends and family that entire countries are watching events in the US with their mouths hanging open. It is quite something to be the butt of another country’s jokes and also arousing pity. And to have people from very far away say: we are so worried about you. I don’t think that was ever even on my ‘never in my lifetime’ bucket list. At our Enrichment Committee zoom meeting yesterday, one of the women remarked that she had read that the virus would continue into 2022 and that this was our new normal looking ahead. And we all agreed that it comes down to each of us deciding what we are comfortable with. Another woman said she couldn’t imagine dining in a restaurant, she just couldn’t contemplate doing it. Here’s a really cheery note (not); The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the U.S. death toll could rise to as high as 145,000 by July 11. At least 117,000 have already died. Just to put that in perspective, July 11 is 3 weeks away - that’s 9000 deaths a week and more than 12,00 deaths a day. In Kent County our stats for yesterday were: 4,179 cases and 119 deaths. The Kent County graph is starting to gradually angle up again after beginning to plateau. The next two Black Lives Matter discussion points: ��Here is a photo of the sidewalk near our house. All the names of POC killed. ��So now we need an Oliver photo and because I’m feeling angry and sad, here’s three: ����Top: Uncle Asher has come to stay! Middle: She did what? (You hear the best gossip at the daycare painting table). Bottom: who knew swings were a thing, and why haven’t I been in one before - and how about pushing me higher? I saw online that the closing day for the Somerleyton Hall was on our next day at the end of September when we were living in Brandon. The Hall is owned by Hugh Crossley, the 4th Baron Somerleyton. It is a large estate and includes the village of Somerleyton. We drove around a long hedged road to find the entrance. The Hall also has a tea house with excellent food, a yew hedge maze (don’t ask, I hate mazes), an historic greenhouse and much, much more. You can tour the house - just the ground floor - as well as the grounds. �������This wasn’t so much of a house as a business. It costs an enormous amount of money to keep an estate of this size in the black. The days of 30-50 staff members are long gone and the present Baron is more of a business manager for the estate. We were lucky with a beautiful day and there weren’t crowds of tourists. You weren’t allowed to take photos inside the house though. Top: I’ve always wanted a driveway like that. Next: Somerleyton Hall. Next: a gate through to the manicured grounds. Next: I love a big vegetable garden. Next: the formal garden. Next: Craig in front of the Hall. Last: me in the pergola. Equipment for the day: mask, hand sanitizer and 6 foot ruler. Check. � 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_2020-06-20_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-101 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 2020-06-20 Title A name given to the resource Day 101 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/16f682929e63ee07d6012eed8f012554.pdf fd0cd9eb563c050c122cf5dd911682cb PDF Text Text Day 102 by windoworks Yesterday was the first day of summer, the midsummer solstice and the longest day of the year. It was also hot! Today is cooler with a chance of thunderstorms. It is also Fathers Day. Happy, happy Fathers Day to all fathers everywhere. Happy Fathers Day to Craig from Zoe and Oliver. �And Happy Fathers Day from Zar and Alva. Here is Craig in the south of France at Roquefixade - which I will talk about at the end of our present European journey. �And although it isn’t Fathers Day in Australia, here’s Oliver and his Dad, Christian. Meanwhile, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at trump’s rally, the stadium was at least half empty, and I’ve seen the photos that prove it (although I also saw his inauguration photos which showed a small crowd and trump �has denied that ever since). So how did this happen when they ran out of tickets? Well, all you had to do was go online, register for the event and add your phone number. All across the States and in places like South Korea, thousands of younger people did just that! They flim flammed the Flim Flam Man himself! Online its called rolling. Of course he blamed the protesters for keeping his fans out but the Tulsa police said No, there were no protesters outside the stadium (and I’ve seen the photo that proves that). He blamed the media for exaggerating the virus threat - and honestly, what a relief that a lot of his followers did believe the media. And here’s a thought - maybe a lot of his followers are ill or a loved one is ill. The virus doesn’t discriminate. Then there’s this: As coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. South and West, health experts in countries with falling case numbers are watching with a growing sense of alarm and disbelief, with many wondering why virusstricken U.S. states continue to reopen and why the advice of scientists is often ignored. China’s actions over the past week stand in stark contrast to those of the United States. In the wake of a new cluster of more than 150 new cases that emerged in Beijing, authorities sealed off neighborhoods, launched a mass testing campaign and imposed travel restrictions. Meanwhile, President Trump maintains that the United States will not shut down a second time, although a surge in cases has persuaded governors in some states, including Arizona, to back off their opposition to mandatory face coverings in public. Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, recently said that forms of social distancing may have to remain in place into 2022. He presented some of his research to a White House group in the early stages of the U.S. outbreak but said “I think they have cherry-picked models that at each point looked the most rosy, and fundamentally not engaged with the magnitude of the problem.” Isn’t this the old ‘head in the sand’ practice? I am sure that you can tell my political leanings from this blogpost. I would like to say that I have never viewed the Democratic Candidate for President, Joe Biden, as anything other than a capable, empathetic man who , as President, will surround himself with educated, capable, hard working people who will work with the best interests of the citizens and the country. I have heard him criticized as being old and speaking slowly. He is older, thats true. He is, in fact, 7 years older than me and I don’t view that as a problem. He does appear slower in speech too and that is because he is a lifelong stutterer. I would never have guessed that because I have never heard him stutter, but I have seen him pause before continuing to speak. Don’t you remember President Obama pausing to think when speaking? It never seemed a problem to me. �Lately, when I watch Joe Biden speak, it reduces me to tears. It reminds me of a time when we had a President who cared about us, the citizens of the United States. That’s what I long to have again. So I hope that this upcoming election in November will oust the orange idiot from the White House and will install a man that listens to the people. Here’s an uh oh moment: MLB will temporarily close all spring training sites in Florida and Arizona, reports say By late Friday evening, USA Today and the Athletic had reported that Major League Baseball will temporarily close all spring training sites in Florida and Arizona for cleaning and will not allow players or staff members to return without first passing a coronavirustest. On what might have been the bleakest day of an exceedingly bleak spring for MLB, the owners effectively halted negotiations with the players’ union over the economic terms of the 2020 season — and that didn’t even constitute the worst news on a day that also saw the novel coronavirus pandemic assert its ultimate dominion over the entire endeavor. What surprises me is that there is an assumption that we can disregard the virus. Restaurant owners say they’ve received little guidance on how best to manage the situation. To their pleasant surprise, customers returned quickly. But so too did the virus: Several restaurants in Phoenix, Houston, and elsewhere reopened only to have to close again because their employees tested positive for COVID-19. And this: Face mask requirements are taking hold across the country as states throughout the South and West continue to report record highs in new daily coronavirus cases. Officials in some of the biggest cities in Arizona and Florida have ordered people to wear masks in public, and California’s governor has mandated them statewide. On Friday, nine Texas mayors wrote a letter to the states’ residents, urging them to wear masks as the number of hospital patients swells. Speaking of face masks, yesterday, after my failure to obtain some grocery items online, we drove to a local grocery store (where some months ago I had a major anxiety attack). Craig masked up and went in, armed with a list. On his return, he reported a major change: arrows in the aisles and masks on everyone, workers and customers alike. When out walking I am beginning to see people masked or carrying their mask, ready to put it on if needed. This makes me happy. ���These are the last 3 examples of racism for us all to recognize and change. I hope these have made you reflect, as we all strive to be a true anti-racist. Here are 2 photos from far flung places: ��From my friend Auli in Finland. She posted this photo to wish all her friends happy midsummer day. This photo is from our son Zar. It is of Auckland Harbor. ��And one more of Oliver, because Oliver. I accidentally took this photo while we were FaceTiming. Every morning Zoe FaceTimes us, usually as she is feeding Oliver his breakfast. I usually make faces at him and sometimes he laughs at me between bites. In other exciting news he has 5 teeth now with a 6th on the way. I bet his mouth is sore. Our next outing from Brandon was to Sutton Hoo. Sutton Hoo is the burial site of two early medieval cemeteries from the 66th and 7th centuries. One cemetery contained an undisturbed ship-burial. It is supposed that Raewald, the ruler of EastAngles was buried in the ship. The Sutton Hoo cemeteries are actually burial mounds. There is a very good visitors center and display, and you can walk around the grounds yourself. �����From the top: me sitting on an old log which had been intricately carved during medieval times into a seat. You can sit here and look toward the coast. Next: in the visitors center there was an area where you could try on medieval clothing and Craig put a replica of the famous Sutton Hoo helmet on. Next: this is the real Sutton Hoo helmet which along with all the other treasures found in the ship-burial are presently housed in the British Museum. I have seen this helmet in the BM and it is breathtakingly beautiful. Next: what the King’s ship-burial looked like inside under the grave mound. Lastly: there were quite a number of other burial mounds like the one above. Most of these are still undisturbed. Stay safe and be 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_2020-06-21_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-102 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 2020-06-21 Title A name given to the resource Day 102 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/86272fb62253c457114868bfa10cd895.pdf df2c2fd102b8b7dc72fc65e01f33a54b PDF Text Text Day 103 by windoworks Yesterday was a big day. For the first time in 3 and a half months we ate food we hadn’t prepared ourselves. Because it was Fathers Day we picked up sushi from our local Japanese restaurant, Maru. We brought it home and sat on the front porch and devoured it. It was delicious and so far, so good. They seemed very organized and cautious at the restaurant. In other news, Craig took one of his saxophones to a music store to be repaired, some weeks ago. There is a master repairer working there, and on Saturday he called Craig to say it was finished. Craig will pick it up today, 72 hours after it was finished which, even though it was sanitized, gives it extra time to be clear of the virus. The repairer works in shifts with other repairers to minimize virus contagion risks. Some of the things trump said on Saturday night are beginning to circulate on online media. There was nothing that he wouldn’t say. He called the virus the Kung Flu and told his audience (a paltry 6,300 people), that he had commanded (instructed, ordered) officials to slow the virus testing down because that way, the numbers of cases would slow down. As I write this, I am astonished anew that any sane person would think this, never mind say this out loud, and make it an order. A comedian Zoe follows said ‘Oh, so if we slow down pregnancy tests, there should be less babies, right?’ The only answer is to vote him and anyone following his lead OUT OF OFFICE! (Yes I am aware I am shouting). We can’t take another 4 years of this, there will be nothing left of America as we know it. Lets not worry about the polls, lets just get out there and vote them all out. Here’s this: Paul McCartney talked about the origins of his song Blackbird. “Way back in the Sixties, there was a lot of trouble going on over civil rights, particularly in Little Rock. We would notice this on the news back in England, so it's a really important place for us, because to me, this is where civil rights started. We would see what was going on and sympathize with the people going through those troubles, and it made me want to write a song that, if it ever got back to the people going through those troubles, it might just help them a little bit." He explained that when he started writing the song, he had in mind a black woman, but in England, "girls" were referred to as "birds." And, so the song started: "Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly �All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise." "Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these sunken eyes and learn to see All your life You were only waiting for this moment to be free." Until I read this story yesterday, I had no idea what this song referred to. In other news: There is now a growing list of outfits revisiting troubling brands. The country group Lady Antebellum has changed its name to Lady A. NASCAR has banned the use of the Confederate flag. The Mars Company is trying to decide what to do about Uncle Ben. Time to retire him, too. The companies that clung to these brands need to do some honest soul-searching to own up to why they waited so long to let go. Just in time for Juneteenth, Quaker Oats announced that the Aunt Jemima brand will be retired as its parent company PepsiCo works to “make progress toward racial equality.” Like that of the enslaved black people in Texas who remained in bondage years after President Abraham Lincoln had granted their freedom, the emancipation of Aunt Jemima is way behind schedule. In those days Aunt Jemima didn’t look like the lady you see on the box today. She was a slave woman, and a demonstrator was expected to act and talk like a slave woman, using a kind of broken patois. Jemima’s do-rag was replaced by a plaid headband. Eventually the headdress was dropped altogether. A 1989 rebrand made her look like someone who shops at Macy’s: Coifed hair. Pearl earrings. Red lipstick. At various points, the company turned for help to consultants like Caroline Jones, who ran the nation’s top black ad agency, and who told the company: “White people may have long forgotten the slaves of old, but no Black person can.” PepsiCo, which acquired Quaker Oats in 2001, has now realized that demammification is not the same as destigmatization. Now, this next story is long, so bear with me. The writer. Alexandra Petri from WaPo, has written a tongue in cheek adaptation of the Trojan Horse, likening it to the coronavirus. �Firstly from Vice President Pence: “In recent days, the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a ‘second wave’ of coronavirus infections. Such panic is overblown. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the courage and compassion of the American people, our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago, and we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy.” In recent days, Cassandra has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a “second wave” of Greek attack that will soon come sweeping over us like the wrath of Poseidon and leave our city in ruins. Such panic is overblown. (Although, technically, “panic” is fear induced by the god Pan, so really this is not even panic at all. But whatever it is, it is overblown.) Thanks to the leadership of King Priam and the courage and compassion of the Trojan people, our walled city is far stronger and even less pregnable than it was nine years ago, and we have won the fight against the Greeks. And if you doubt that, just look at this enormous and beautifully constructed wooden horse they have left for us, which is definitely not hollow and will absolutely not be filled with handpicked soldiers ready to pour out and devastate our city. The point is: The war has been a great success. And I can’t think of anyone better to have led us through it than King Priam. Yes, we have had losses, but ultimately we were victorious. That is what this horse means. We should seize it and be grateful. Now is the time to bring in the horse and commemorate this achievement. We have defeated this visible enemy, which was also sometimes invisible because the gods are tricky. Look, we can test the horse, if you like, but I think testing just makes it more likely you will find out information that makes you unhappy, and that is the last thing we need in our moment of triumph. But sure, have Helen walk around the horse calling out in the voices of the Greeks’ loved ones, just in case! Knock yourself out! I am sure the worst is over. This is a time of celebration, and I think we can all sleep soundly in our beds. And I, for one, will sleep better once we get that horse inside. Congratulations, people of Troy. I remember this famous story in which the wooden horse was hollow and inside was a group of soldiers who climbed out during the night, opened the gates of Troy, and the Greeks sacked Troy. Here’s something pretty to cheer us all up. ��This rose was in terrible shape about 2 years ago, and I thought we might have to dig it out and plant something new. We cut it back hard and even with frost burnt leaves, look at its gorgeousness. By the way, I once attended Garden Club with my mother-in-law (in Australia) and the speaker was talking about dealing with ailing deciduous trees. She recommended hitting the tree with a pice of wood, 2 or 3 times. She explained that this would signal to the tree that it was under attack and it would grow new leaves to protect itself. We have a sick maple tree out the front that I think Craig should smack and see what happens. It might help, and as we called the city arborist 2 years ago and he’s never come by, I think we should do it. Oliver. ��Inside a tunnel at daycare. Yesterday during our FaceTime, Craig started playing ‘Girl From Ipanema’ on the piano and Oliver started rocking back and forth in time to the music. Grandad (Craig) is extremely excited and envisions a wonderful music career ahead of Oliver. Hmmm. Another day we drove from Brandon to Wells-next-the-Sea. No it really is called that and its because there are (or were) many spring wells situated nearby. It has been a seaport since the 14th century. The beach which is huge, is subject to the ever-changing tides, and they use an old war siren to warn beach goers of incoming beach floodings. The siren sounds about 5-10 minutes before the tide takes over the beach and allows everyone to vacate the area safely. ����I have to say that I was nervous the whole time we were out there. You park and then walk along a dyke/track to get out there. I talked to the park ranger while Craig walked way out to the channel. The ranger described just how fast the tide comes in and I was really nervous until Craig came back. The top photo is of the bathing sheds and the other photos are of the vastness of the tidal flats. More adventures tomorrow. So remember: the virus is still with us and being careful is our new way of life going forward. It may not be what we want, but it is what life is now. As always, stay safe and be 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_2020-06-22_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-103 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 2020-06-22 Title A name given to the resource Day 103 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/25380b3c14743c6b65b9398893f829ea.pdf d044f6207efb2c5b4be49c2fd1318431 PDF Text Text Day 1, 793. Oh okay Day 104. by windoworks Our neighbors are having their house painted which a new source of interest for me as TJ (on the other side) finished his south wall repair and repainting a couple of weeks ago. The house is being painted a vibrant shade of blue with terracotta trim. We are going ahead (when I say ‘we’ I mean Craig) with painting our house red on the top half and white on the bottom with grey trim. Craig is starting with the back wall of the house, so we can see what it will look like. The team painting the house next door are spraying the paint on. It’s much quicker and it gives a better coverage than brushes. Craig is thinking about hiring a compressor and sprayer. He’s going to start tomorrow I think. This began on Friday here in downtown Grand Rapids: • Restaurants, bars and coffee shops in downtown Grand Rapids are getting an influx of outdoor seating thanks to a city of Grand Rapids program designed to give businesses a boost during the coronavirus pandemic. • Four outdoor, open-air seating areas — know as “social zones” — are being installed Friday, June 19, by city workers. • The areas will include table and chairs, where residents can eat to-go orders and takeout meals from nearby restaurants. Patrons can drink beer or wine that is purchased and stored in a sealed container. • The idea is to give food service businesses, whose inside capacity has been reduced by half to comply with social distancing guidelines, more space to serve customers. • “They’re an important way for us to ensure that downtown and neighborhood business districts retain their vibrancy, because restaurants and bars are important businesses that bring people into those areas,” said Lou Canfield, who manages the city’s development center. And I offer this in case you are struggling to comply: During its WWDC keynote Monday, Apple announced a new addition to its Watch to help users wash their hands the appropriate amount of time. With the update, the Watch will look out for the signs you’re at a sink, from the way you move your hands, to the sound of water swooshing by. Then the Watch will give you a countdown to make sure you spend the doctor-recommended amount of time cleaning away all those nasty germs. Here is a change I can get behind: In a growing trend, dozens of aging dams are being removed from U.S. rivers every year, and wildlife populations are exploding as a result. In Maine, this has meant the return of millions of migratory fish, plus �bald eagles and other birds who eat them. East Coast rivers have been dammed for hundreds of years and many people have never seen a large river system in its natural state The virus continues to increase as people try to return to normal life. Some don’t believe in it and some have cast caution to the winds and some say that if they get it, they’ll get over it quickly and easily. Hmmm. Around the country, Americans in their 20s and 30s are increasingly testing positive for COVID-19. Public health experts have a couple of theories about this. More people are getting tested for the virus as the capacity to test them has expanded. Why the increase? Some say younger adults believe they are less at risk than their parents or grandparents; they are also more likely to venture back into society as it reopens without practicing social distancing and wearing masks. We are shocked — shocked! — about 20-yearolds not thinking long term. But all you 30-somethings? C’mon, people. Recently I read a twitter post from a comedian who watched her mother dying from COVID-19 in an ICU, on FaceTime. I can’t imagine how dreadful that would be. And the comedian said: it happened so fast. Here in Michigan our governor and her colleagues are getting kudos for the way in which they managed the virus from the beginning - not from trump, but from researchers at Imperial College London and Oxford University. Here’s some of what they found: The researchers found that states that were more successful at keeping people at home were also more successful at reducing the spread of COVID-19. And mobility decreased more in Michigan under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-home orders than in any other Great Lakes states — or most states in the United States, according to the study. In Michigan, as of about March 12 — before restaurants, businesses and schools were closed and prior to Whitmer's stay-at-home orders — each person with COVID-19 was spreading the virus to about 3.5 other people, the study found. By mid-May, after mobility was reduced by Whitmer's measures, the state's reproduction number had fallen to 1, meaning sick individuals were spreading the disease to just one other person on average. The population of Michigan is 9 million. In an unmitigated epidemic, you might expect that 70% to 80% of the population might be infected, that's 7.4 million people infected with COVID-19. We assume around a 1% infection mortality rate — that's over all the infections in the population, some are very mild. So if you multiple 7.4 million by 1%, you get 74,000 deaths. Michigan has experienced 5,990 confirmed and probable deaths through Friday, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Probable deaths are defined as people whose death �certificates say they died of COVID-19 but they were never tested for the virus. The state has had 65,672 cases confirmed and probable cases through Friday since the virus was first detected in early March. The conclusion is that the Stay At Home order worked even though businesses were hugely affected. The conversation seemed to be: its either the virus or the economy, but really its both. And in states where they rushed to open - State and city leaders in the U.S. are responding to a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations by implementing new rules, scaling back on reopening plans and issuing dire warnings about the future of public health and the economy. In lieu of a Florida statewide mask rule, several city mayors in Miami-Dade County are implementing their own mask requirements. Texas authorities temporarily suspended the alcohol permits of 12 bars for violating protocols designed to stem the crisis, as Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said cases and hospitalizations there are increasing at an “unacceptable” rate. And in Utah, the state epidemiologist is warning that the state could be facing a “complete shutdown” if cases continue to rise. Twenty-nine states and U.S. territories showed an increase in their seven-day average of new reported cases on Monday, with nine states reporting record average highs. In the states where cases are spiking the most, hospitalizations are also rising sharply. More than 2,290,000 cases and 118,000 deaths have been officially reported in the United States. The phrase ‘between a rock and a hard place’ comes to mind. In the end, whatever presidents or governors or mayors do (and my governor and mayor are stellar women), it comes down to each of us deciding what we are comfortable with. If you do reengage with the world - remember to respect others - stay apart, wear and mask and wash your hands. First a photo from Zar. This is Cornwall Park in Auckland New Zealand. Auckland City is built on a large number of dormant volcanoes - around 50. When I was growing up I thought the Auckland volcanoes were extinct. Once married to a Big Historian I learned that volcanoes are never extinct, but dormant. Sort of sleeping between eruptions. My sister lives on the lip of a crater and she always says she’ll be gone in the first 7 seconds. Cornwall Park surrounds One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie Pa) which is one of the dormant volcanoes. I will talk about Pas etc in another blog thread but not this pandemic diary. Walking in Cornwall Park is always a joy and here is Zar’s photo of the path through the trees. ��And the daily Oliver photo, this time with his uncle: ��We are coming to the end of our adventures in Brandon and are now in week 4. Late one afternoon we drove to Tichwell Marsh. This is a nature reserve owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It is located on the north coast of Norfolk and its 420 acres include reed beds, salt marshes, a freshwater lagoon and a sandy beach. It also has artifacts dating back to the Late Paleolithic era and the remains of military constructions from both world wars. It is immensely popular with birdwatchers or twitchers as they are known. We felt woefully under equipped as we were there with people who had cameras with huge lens and binoculars. We had our cell phones. ������The first 3 photos are of the marshes, reed beds and lagoon and the next photo is of the concrete bunker remains on the beach. Then a photo of me on the beach and lastly Craig and I. It was a cold day - you can tell by the layers Craig is wearing. A very wild and beautiful place. Keep smiling through. � 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_2020-06-23_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-104 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 2020-06-23 Title A name given to the resource Day 104 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/49356b7096df82d9eacc2259ecafd7ae.pdf 994e293b30535ba588ae5585ceb6f5bf PDF Text Text Day 105 by windoworks There are some mornings when the news is so alarming I can barely read it. Some friends advise not reading it at all. I’m not that person. Fortunately I do not have access to cable tv so I can only get my news online. Have you ever noticed that every email that the Washington Post sends out is headed ‘Breaking News’?After 106 days I tend to ignore the header. So yesterday, that unsung hero of the pandemic, Dr Anthony Fauci, testified before Congress. Here’s some of what he had to say: Fauci told lawmakers he had never seen a single virus that produced such a wide range of symptoms and disease severity in its victims. Some people infected with covid-19 have no symptoms, Fauci said, while others have mild symptoms, and still others require weeks in a hospital on a ventilator or die as a result of the virus. Fauci urged young people who might be tempted to resume their normal lives because they believe it is unlikely they will get seriously ill from the virus to consider the impact they could have on the outbreak across the country. “Even though the overwhelming majority then do well, what you can’t forget is if you get infected and spread the infection, even though you do not get sick, you are part of the process of the dynamics of an outbreak,” Fauci said. “What you might be propagating, perhaps innocently, is you infect someone, who infects someone, who then infects someone who is vulnerable.” Fauci warned “The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges that we are seeing in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and other states. If the surges aren’t reversed, they will create a much larger pool of people who have the virus and can then spread it to others”. Sadly (and worryingly) there are surges in other places across the world. German authorities said Tuesday they would impose a new regional lockdown in a district of the country’s northwest to contain an outbreak linked to a meat-processing plant, after more than 1,500 workers were infected. Portugal cracked down on mass gatherings. Australia’s Victoria state re-shuttered several schools. An area in the northeast of Spain reintroduced restrictions. Even New Zealand, which has just 10 confirmed, active cases, tightened border measures as an increasing number of citizens abroad began to fly home. In Germany, schools and kindergartens had already shut their doors as the number of cases climbed in recent days. Starting Tuesday, people will only be able to meet with one other person or members of their �own household. Gyms, bars, galleries and museums will be closed. Health officials remained optimistic that localized outbreaks could be contained through testing, contact tracing and quarantines. Officials in the Australian state of Victoria also blamed large gatherings for climbing case numbers. Over the weekend, officials there already lowered the cap on gatherings following four consecutive days of double-digit rises in infections. As during the first phase of reopening, no more than 10 people can meet in public and no more than five can assemble inside homes. On Tuesday, officials also closed two primary schools after a flare-up of more than a dozen coronavirus cases prompted concerns about “significant” community spread. “I know and understand that all Victorians want this to be over,” Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews said at a news conference, “but we simply can’t pretend the virus is gone, that the virus is somehow not in our state." His comments echoed a growing rift that has emerged between nations that are doubling down on trying to contain the virus and countries like the United States, where scientists fear economic recovery is being prioritized over virus containment efforts. The hardest part about all this is the continuing echo from scientists everywhere; we don’t know. The question When will this be over? And. When will life return to normal? Are always answered by: we don’t know, sometimes followed by: we think that ..... As human beings we find it difficult to embrace the unknown. Most of us like normal. It’s comfortable and reassuring. I find reassuring things with my own family but outside of that tight circle, it is all the great unknown. My grandson will be one year old in a month’s time, and we will not be there to celebrate. I hope that we will be able to visit Australia by this time next year and celebrate his next birthday, but I don’t know for certain. To lighten the mood. Remember when I posted the photo of the roller coaster with stuffed animals riding in it because they needed to keep it in running order? Well, this happened: What do famous musicians do when they have with no one to play for? They perform for plants. Obviously! Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu opera opened to a full house on Monday for its first concert since mid-March. All 2,292 seats were filled with leafy green plants for the UceLi Quartet's prelude performance to the 2020-2021 season. The string quartet serenaded the quiet in-house audience with Giacomo Puccini's "Crisantemi" (human fans listened via livestream). The plants have been sent to health care workers at a hospital in Barcelona. Maravilloso! Craig and I watched it and at the end of the piece, they played the sound of rain falling on plants and they made the plants wave in the breeze to simulate applause. Very clever. �And this thought: You should probably just go ahead and permanently convert your closet into a home office. Like it or not, many employers found the benefits of working from home outweigh the drawbacks, mostly because of — what else? — money. According to Global Workplace Analytics, "a typical employer can save about $11,000 a year for every person who works remotely half of the time." And workers can bank between $2,500 and $4,000 over the same split. However, there are potential downsides collaboration with colleagues can suffer, and some feel like they’re disconnected from their company. Yesterday we went walking in another cemetery, this time Oak Hill. I like walking in cemeteries, especially older ones with well established trees. It’s quiet, contemplative and safe and I find myself thinking about death and sorrow but not in a depressing way, which is surprising. Now these 2 photos were taken (awkwardly) out of Craig’s office window, but they’re of a team cutting down the huge tree limb which fell on my neighbor’s garage roof some time ago. (authors note: the passage of time is very confusing in a pandemic). Anyway they have ropes (how did they get that red one up there?) and they have helmets, gloves, harnesses and chainsaws. ���Not great photos but you get the idea. Now Oliver, because his smile makes me feel better. ��All bundled up for the cold weather and a happy family shot. Now our second last outing in Brandon. It was a cold, rainy day and somehow (although it didn’t improve my mood) it made our destination more atmospheric. Not far from Brandon is Lakenheath Fen. This is a 740 acre site of reed beds and grazing marshes. It is a haven for wildlife. ������As well as all types of breeding birds, there were wild ponies grazing. Britain is astonishing with all its well preserved and maintained natural areas. Standing rules: You should wear a mask if you’re going to spend time near anybody who is not part of your household. You should minimize your time in indoor spaces with multiple people. You should move as many activities as possible outdoors. You should wash your hands frequently. And you should stay home, away from even your own family members, if you feel sick. On that happy note, 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_2020-06-24_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-105 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 2020-06-24 Title A name given to the resource Day 105 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