91 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4f1f9a658f267bf8dd226ee4efa8bef5.pdf 10c89f70f0d0f385394896251ba9bd3f PDF Text Text Day 179 by windoworks I can certainly relate to this! Time for a stats roundup. Yesterday the US recorded 50,183 new cases, total: 6.26M and total deaths: 188K. Michigan recorded 838 new cases, total: 117K and total deaths: 6,809. Kent County recorded 38 new cases, total: 7,933 and total deaths: 161. The Kent County numbers are confusing as a state site records a much higher number of cases and more deaths. This morning I am using the Kent County Health Dept stats. There is an overall decrease in deaths while numbers of cases are holding steady at a higher rate or climbing slightly. The decrease in deaths may be because this is a different strain of the virus which is more contagious but less fatal and/or more knowledge of the virus structure which is leading to better treatment. And in Melbourne, Australia, the lockdown has been extended until October �26! While most states in Australia have had a very low virus count, Victoria seems to account for almost 90% of daily cases. They have pulled the daily case numbers down to the 70s but its still higher than the state government would like. On Friday I was talking to an acquaintance who had had the virus in March. I asked her if she had any long term effects from it and she described an occasional coughing spell in which she seems to be unable to stop or catch her breath. She has never had anything like this before. I think this is the real cost of those who have recovered from the virus itself - odd, lingering and disturbing health problems. I read an excellent article which described what the scientists are learning about the virus. I’m not reprinting it here but it seems to say that it enters the body through the nose and then transforms from a respiratory disease to a blood disease which breaks down the cell walls across the body. It can cross the blood/brain barrier (from my Psychology days at college - very few things can cross that barrier), which explains strokes etc. and it leaks out of the cells in the lungs, filling them with a jello consistency fluid. Now this is a description of the life threatening cases, which are really a small percentage of the overall cases. From the New Zealand Sunday Star Times, masks are now a fashion statement: ��Yesterday I was texting with my friend in Finland and she told me that cases are rising across Europe and Finland, but Finland is controlling it well. She and her family are mostly working at home but they have enjoyed the summer and are now heading into fall. �Here in Michigan Gov Whitmer has extended the state of emergency to October 1. The emergency declaration is what gives the Democratic governor the ability to make unilateral actions to combat the virus, such as closing businesses or penalizing those who don't wear masks. She also extended executive �orders already in place Saturday to protect frontline workers at groceries, pharmacies and long-term care facilities. The orders require stores to provide two hours a week of reserved shopping time for vulnerable people and require workers to continue regularly testing, cleaning and social distancing during the pandemic. Its been a difficult week for Trump. Washington Post President Trump is moving to revamp federal agencies’ racial sensitivity trainings, casting some of them as “divisive” and “un-American,” according to a memo by the White House Office of Management and Budget. �In the two-page memo, OMB Director Russell Vought says Trump has asked him to prevent federal agencies from spending millions in taxpayer dollars on these training sessions. Vought says OMB will instruct federal agencies to come up with a list of all contracts related to training sessions involving “white privilege” or “critical race theory,” and do everything possible within the law to cancel those contracts, the memo states. The memo, released on Friday, also tells all federal agencies to identify and if possible cancel contracts that involve teaching that America is an “inherently racist or evil country.” The President has directed me to ensure that federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions,” the memo states. I’m not sure how well that’s going to play for him. Then he tried this: NPR News President Trump is acting to withhold federal money from cities where large protests have been held in recent months. In a memo, the president said he won’t let federal dollars be used to fund “lawless zones.” Affected cities include Portland, Ore., New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Mayors of the four cities condemned Trump’s action in a joint statement. And then this happened: CBS Austin Multiple 911 calls were made Saturday afternoon regarding boats being in distress, some sinking at the ‘Trump Boat Parade’ that took place on Lake Travis, according to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. TCSO confirmed with CBS Austin that multiple boats were sinking, some in distress. The sheriff's office says calls were made about boats along the entire route of the parade, some of the locations include: Paradise Cove, Emerald Point and West Beach. At around 2:50 p.m. the TCSO confirmed through a tweet to have responded to calls made about boats being in distress at the parade, they also confirmed that several boats were sinking on the lake. Is this a sign? I wonder. And finally, an opinion piece from The Atlantic. It was a disturbing read which explained why Trump followers continue to believe in him, no matter what he does or says. The term ‘cognitive dissonance’ appeared in the article, which also reminded me of my Psych days. It means: the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as related to behavioral decisions and attitude change. Here’s the wrap up from the article: I know plenty of Trump supporters, and I know many of them to be people of integrity in important areas of their lives. Indeed, some are friends I cherish. But if there is a line Donald Trump could cross that would forfeit the loyalty of his core supporters—including, and in some respects especially, white evangelical Christians—I can’t imagine what it would be. And that is a rather depressing thing to admit. Polarization and political tribalism are not new to America; fear and hatred for our fellow citizens have �been increasing for decades. We’ve had plenty of presidents who have failed us, in ways large and small. But this moment is different because Donald Trump is different, and because Donald Trump is president. His relentless assault on truth and the institutions of democracy—his provocations and abuse of power, his psychological instability and his emotional volatility, his delusions and his incompetence—are unlike anything we’ve seen before. He needs to be stopped. And his supporters can’t say, as they did in 2016, that they just didn’t know. Leaf art Day 4. And once more, Oliver: ��In this photo you can clearly see the grazes on his nose and between his eyebrows from doing a face plant into the pine bark ground cover at the park. He seems to be recovering okay. Flashback: still in Narbonne �����From the top: I was really impressed with the way they wrapped the tower like a Christmas gift; they decorated the streets too; two photos inside the church. �Just to make you laugh. Tomorrow then. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-09-06_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-179 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 2020-09-06 Title A name given to the resource Day 179 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/c246270e5141f9cb6d73e603435d69f5.pdf 14cac8cf158127f38787a1ee8228b18e PDF Text Text Day 180 by windoworks On a beach in Port Aransas, Texas, a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln shows him seated in anguish. With his head buried in his hand, he sits atop a crumbling monument. The scene is as poignant as it is aweinspiring because Lincoln and his throne are crafted completely out of sand. Damon Langlois is the artist behind this sand sculpture and its incredible details that include the likeness of the 16th President and deep “cracks” in the seat base. The piece, called Liberty Crumbling, recently won first place in the 23rd annual Texas SandFest, the largest native sand sculpture competition in the U.S. There’s no denying that the subject of Langlois' reimagining of the Lincoln Memorial doesn't comment on the current state of domestic and world affairs. He doesn't intend for it, however, to have a certain political leaning. “It’s not really a partisan statement since it affects everyone who believes in freedom,” Langlois explains to My Modern Met. “I think this is why the sculpture had such broad appeal. No matter who you vote for you probably feel this in some way.” Some mornings I feel just like this sand Abraham- and this is one of those mornings. I was reading a post on a website I joined about making phone calls for Biden. The responses these brave women were getting were uniformly awful. But one response struck me: I won’t vote for Biden because I believe in the Constitution. Hands up everyone who has read the Constitution, cover to cover. I suspect not all of us have read it. Craig and I have, because when you are applying for citizenship, you have to be able to �answer questions from the Constitution. That’s how I know the Speaker of the House is next in line for the Presidency, should a catastrophe occur. When you ask people, not many know that answer. The more common guess is Secretary of State. I was talking about this with a friend the other day. One of the problems we have is that being a politician has become a career. When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution and set up the House and the Senate, being a representative was just a 6 month term. After your term, you were meant to go back to your actual occupation. Change was seen as a good thing. I’m not sure when that began to change. (Authors note: although I try to research as much as possible, there may be incorrect facts). I also read that while we are being shocked and amused by such events as the Trump Boat Parade disaster, we must not lose sight of the appalling lack of resources and guidance in the pandemic and the resurgence of attempted suppression for addressing racial discrimination and bias. We should also keep in mind the economy and the unemployment rate, businesses failing, evictions etc. and consider who has the best team around them and is prepared to address all these issues head on. Yesterday Joe Biden added Pete Buttigieg to his Transition team along with other educated, qualified people. Here’s an opinion piece from the Washington Post. The author is talking about her dog, Tank. The reason I am writing is not Tank’s death but its aftermath. In the strain of the pandemic, in the heat of police shootings, the social fabric is fraying. You can hear it rip. If there was a communitarian, we’ll-getthrough-this-together ethos at the start of the lockdowns, it has been replaced by a my-way mentality. Thanks to President Trump, mask-wearing has become political statement, not social responsibility. We spent the summer in Wyoming, and driving home across the country (Tank was never happier than when ensconced in the car for long stretches with his people), we encountered instance after instance — at the hotel in North Dakota, the restaurant in Minnesota where we stopped for takeout, the rest stop in Indiana — of behavior that was not only irresponsible but aggressively so. When I asked a man at the rest stop — a rest stop whose doors proclaimed “Masks Required” — to wear a mask, he said I was free to do so for my health, but he chose not to. And when I pointed out that, actually, his mask-wearing protected me, and vice versa, it didn’t take long for him to start yelling about Joe Biden. I know: stupid, foolhardy me, to try to engage. I took to Twitter again, in the hours after Tank’s death, to share my grief. The platform that can be so ugly and so hate-filled responded this time with overwhelming love. From people I knew, from strangers, offering condolences and sharing their own sad experiences. It was an enormous, unexpected comfort. We looked at the pet pictures they posted and read the stories they shared of their own dog’s passing, and wept. What does it say that an audience that can be so cruel and ugly can be so generous and compassionate? The more cynical interpretation is that we are a country that tends to care more about pets than people, and there is some unfortunate truth to that. We are Rest Stop Twitter, angry and vindictive, but we are �also Tank Twitter, full of boundless affection, even for strangers. Tank didn’t see either — he saw humans to love, even if part of their attraction was that they might have treats. If he could, Tank would lick all your faces. Every last one. Here’s one for the scientists among us: �Day 4 of leaf art: Here’s one for the office workers among us: The New Normal Some of us used to enjoy going into the office. By “enjoy” we mean being able to get our work done in peace (at least sometimes), have an in-person discussion with other adults and not have to cut up anyone’s food at lunchtime. Anyway, we digress. With many offices around the world still shut, working from home seems likely to be the new normal for millions of white-collar employees. And that may actually contribute to a vicious economic cycle that reshapes our cities Two days ago Craig walked over to Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids with Murphy Brown. �And now Oliver: ��Sometimes I accidentally take photos while we are FaceTiming. He’s looking at Craig and I on Zoe’s phone. I often wonder if he thinks we live in the phone. Flashback: in Narbonne there is a museum with many Roman artifacts as it was an important Roman fort. ������Amazing mosaics in reasonable condition and a close up of some carved figures in the church, I think. I often photograph details that appeal to me, and these faces did. �Remember - 56 days, 16 hours and 49 minutes to Election Day. And stay safe 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_2020-09-07_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-180 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 2020-09-07 Title A name given to the resource Day 180 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/8f0ec083b796c7acf9750632f7c9d069.pdf 0212109406b25caf24f4a3bd15b10ea1 PDF Text Text Day 181 by windoworks Have you ever sat before a computer screen and thought: I have run out of things to say? Tomorrow it will be 26 weeks exactly since we began this odyssey. 26 weeks of one day after another each exactly the same. There are small, incremental changes, of course. I no longer order groceries online and I am reasonably comfortable in grocery stores. I think about eating out but the closest I can get to it is seriously considering take out. We still sanitize things regularly, stand carefully back from neighbors to chat, and continue to always wash our hands well. Tomorrow Craig has to have a Covid test, as he was selected randomly by GVSU. Speaking of GVSU, as of Friday the positivity rate is 3.32% and the total of positive cases was 271. I am sure those numbers will be adjusted later today. We are gradually divesting ourselves of years of accumulation of ‘things’, hundreds of photos (most not well taken), furniture, kitchen gadgets - books are next. Speaking of kitchen gadgets, yesterday I ventured cautiously into Sur La Table, a kitchen equipment and cooking class store which is closing down - like many other well known brand stores. I wandered around the fairly empty shelves, but what caught my eye were all those specialized gadgets that no one wants now, like strawberry hullers and oyster openers. Life seems so much simpler. We eat vegetables from our own garden or from our favorite farm. At the beginning we used to order cakes and treats from our favorite gluten free bakery. We’d order lots and then freeze some for later. Now I’m much more likely to bake things myself, like cakes, rolls and bread. Days have fallen into a rhythm which is changing again after 6 months into a new pattern to accommodate Craig’s online schedule with extra zoom meetings to advise students. Most days we still try to go for a drive and sometimes walk in parks. Yesterday I made us lunch and we drove back to Muskegon State Park to sit and watch the wild waves on the lake. Driving home we were ensnared in the many RVs and trailers heading back home. �Trump continues to do and say ridiculous, irresponsible things - many of which he denies as fake news, but then someone finds a tweet he has written which confirms that he said it in the first place. Books are being published written by former members of his inner circle, presenting damning information. And through it all he continues to pretend that he cares about America. Polls say he’s winning, or he’s losing, or its tied, but the only thing we can do is vote to make America as Blue as possible. Are Democrats perfect? Of course not, but at this moment they seem much better than Republicans. �As I write this it seems someone has managed to dredge up something on Louis DeJoy - remember, he’s the man ‘overhauling’ the US Postal Service. Washington Post: House Democrats are launching an investigation of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and called for his immediate suspension following accusations that he reimbursed employees for campaign contributions they made to his preferred GOP politicians, an arrangement that would be unlawful. Maloney’s announcement came a day after The Washington Post reported allegations that DeJoy and his aides urged employees at his former North Carolina-based logistics company to write checks and attend fundraisers on behalf of Republican candidates. DeJoy then defrayed the cost of those political contributions by boosting employee bonuses, two employees told The Post. Although it can be permissible to encourage employees to make donations, reimbursing them for those contributions is a violation of North Carolina and federal election laws. Such federal violations carry a five-year statute of limitations. There is no statute of limitations in North Carolina for felonies, including campaign finance violations. The latest accusations have only added to the turbulence surrounding the Postal Service. �The mail in ballots will come out in Michigan after September 19. Unfortunately, as I mentioned the other day, at this time Michigan does not count ballots as received. We will have to wait until the polls close on the day, or even later. Now to the virus. Here’s what we need to consider. Washington Post: Infectious-disease experts are warning of a potential cold-weather surge of coronavirus cases — a longfeared “second wave” of infections and deaths, possibly at a catastrophic scale. It could begin well before Election Day, Nov. 3, although researchers assume the crest would come weeks later, closer to when fall gives way to winter. An autumn surge in covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, would not be an October surprise: It has been hypothesized since early in the pandemic because of the patterns of other respiratory viruses. “My feeling is that there is a wave coming, and it’s not so much whether it’s coming but how big is it going to be,” said Eili Klein, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Respiratory viruses typically begin spreading more easily a couple of weeks after schools resume classes. Although the pandemic has driven many school districts to remote learning, there is a broad push across the country to return to something like normal life. The Labor Day holiday weekend is a traditional time of travel and group activities, and, like Independence Day and Memorial Day, could seed transmission of the virus if people fail to take precautions. By year’s end, 410,000 people in the United States will have died under the model’s most-likely scenario. That’s more than double current fatalities. The model also produced best-case and worst-case scenarios — ranging from 288,000 to 620,000 deaths by Jan. 1 — depending on the degree to which people wear masks, adhere to social distancing and take other precautions. Leaf art day 5: �Leaf art has led to discussions of how this is done, between Craig and I. We wondered if the leaf was stiffened in some way. Oliver. Zoe has connected me to his daycare daily post. Here’s my favorite photo so far: ��‘Helping’ to make pasta. I don’t know about you but my children had a very boring life until they began preschool. I am amazed at what Oliver does each day at daycare. One of the most interesting places just outside Toulouse is the Cité de l'espace (French for City of Space) which is a scientific discovery centre focused on spaceflight. It was opened in June 1997 and is located on the eastern outskirts of Toulouse. It was an amazing experience. Here’s some photos: Craig ‘moon jumping’ in low gravity. �The Clean Room selfie. �An extreme weather satellite. �The MIR spec station and me - just before I walked inside. �And this is only part of it. We arrived at Space City at lunchtime and their excellent cafeteria was supposed to be closed for a staff Christmas Lunch, but we were allowed to sit down and have the same wonderful lunch that the staff were having. All the exhibits were cream on the top after that. More space photos 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_2020-09-08_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-181 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 2020-09-08 Title A name given to the resource Day 181 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/e1194874b0b60ba630d24eb9e0d71f85.pdf 55b2f0f6ed2cf6ba86a556a461b3547e PDF Text Text Day 182 by windoworks �As I begin to write this morning, I am sitting in bed with my dressing gown on because the temperature is in the 50s and the leaves are turning. I realized that when I first began writing this Pandemic Diary, I was �also sitting in bed with my dressing gown on. Craig said I’ll probably be sitting in bed writing the diary next year when its warm enough to not be wearing my dressing gown. Now there’s a challenging thought. And to emphasize this, here’s 9 things that may have disappeared forever. Will we miss them? To these I would add choir singing, wind and brass instruments, hugs, cheek kisses, and handshakes. Every doctor I have seen recently has had to visibly restrain themselves from shaking my and Craig’s hands. Washington Post: Buffets Dancing with strangers Blowing out birthday candles One night stands Karaoke Free samples Cash Ball pits Asking a stranger to take our photo Today its all about the virus: Washington Post In an effort to restore faith in the scientific process, chief executives from nine drug companies vowed Tuesday not to seek approval for vaccines before they have proved to be safe and effective. Pharmaceutical companies' promise to adhere to safety would in any other time be unremarkable, but the pledge is coming amid intense pressure from President Trump and the White House to deliver a vaccine before the election. Trump’s own top vaccine adviser, Operation Warp Speed co-chief Moncef Slaoui, told NPR last week that it's “very unlikely” that a vaccine would be ready before Election Day. And even if it is, the vast majority of Americans wouldn't be able to get it immediately after it's approved. The FDA will most likely want the people who are at the most risk — front-line health workers, those older than 65 and those with underlying medical conditions — to be vaccinated first. After that, it could take another six months for a full approval to distribute the vaccine widely. In some ways I’m glad about that because......... New York Times: AstraZeneca halted global trials of its coronavirus vaccine, after a participant contracted an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord. For now, it is unclear whether the illness and vaccine are connected, but the news is a reminder that drug trials often encounter problems. �I think most Americans are nervous about using a vaccine that hasn’t been properly trialed. And below is the next development towards automation. All those science fiction stories I read are starting to come true at rather an alarming rate. Its probably my age. Young people seem to cope with this sort of thing easily. In the meantime, we'll have to continue with social distancing, face masks and rigorous cleaning. Robots are being deployed to help with the last one. In one California hospital, two robots disinfect the rooms of all covid-19 patients each day using UV light. It takes them 12 minutes to do a job that a worker would spend 90 on. The pandemic is pushing the U.S. economy toward automation, and posing long-term risks to low-wage workers in the process. Yesterday during his online class discussion, one of Craig’s students said he was rooming in a dorm with two other male students who suddenly became ill on Friday with temperatures of 102 F, coughing and struggling to breathe. He moved out and is staying somewhere else. Remember GVSU had 273 cases on Friday? Yesterday they posted 395 cases, including 1 faculty member. I’m not sure if this is the faculty member that another of Craig’s students said yesterday suddenly canceled his face to face class as he was experiencing Covid symptoms. They update the stats each afternoon at 4:30pm, so we’ll wait to see what today brings. Their alert level is Moderate. But in other universities, from the New York Times - The problem with college during the coronavirus pandemic is not just what’s happening on campuses and in college towns. It’s also that colleges may end up spreading the virus to dozens of other communities. Last week, after hundreds of students came down with the virus, the State University of New York at Oneonta ended in-person classes and sent students home. Colorado College, North Carolina State, James Madison (in Virginia)and Chico State (in California) have taken similar steps. At Illinois State, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, administrators have encouraged some students who have tested positive to leave campus, so they don’t infect other students, and return home. These decisions to scatter students — rather than quarantine them on campus — have led to widespread criticism. “It’s the worst thing you could do,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s leading infectious-disease expert, said on NBC. “When you send them home, particularly when you’re dealing with a university where people come from multiple different locations, you could be seeding the different places with infection.” Some of Craig’s students have decided not to use the meal plan they paid for, but instead to shop locally and cook for themselves. They are living in accommodation which is apartment style with bathrooms and kitchens included. All his 3 classes are worried and are trying hard to stay safe. This is GVSU’s open and wait and see option in action. �Creative gardening! And in other worrying news: �NPR Strong winds and major wildfires are making for dangerous conditions in several Western states. Electrical utilities have cut power to customers in Oregon and California to prevent new starts, and firefighters are scrambling to contain wildfires in both states. Leaf art day whatever: Oliver. Look at this new birthday gift from Zoe’s friend. Well I’m overcome. �And here’s a photo from Auckland, New Zealand where life is slowly returning to almost virus free �More Space City �Me and the planets. I’m standing on the sun. �A rocket. �The Soyuz satellite. �This morning Craig is going to have his Covid test, having been randomly chosen by GVSU’s computer. One student told Craig that she’s been tested 3 times in 1 week - randomly chosen. I think they could spin that wheel again, don’t you? And to finish on a recorder note: �� 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_2020-09-09_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-182 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 2020-09-09 Title A name given to the resource Day 182 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/106b2ee1bcf26335e8ddbda2e6cb29c8.pdf b070907ac5ba44040af167f4f9e80147 PDF Text Text Day 183 by windoworks Apparently Lindsay Graham encouraged Trump to do the interviews (11 or 12 of them) with Bob Woodward who has now published a book about Trump titled Rage. How appropriate. Here is one of the big takeaways from the book: New York Times Mr. Trump minimized the risks of the coronavirus to the American public early in the year. Despite knowing that the virus was “deadly” and highly contagious, he often publicly said the opposite, �insisting that the virus would go away quickly. “I wanted to always play it down,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Woodward on March 19. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.” The funny thing is, he is the only one not panicking. The rest of America is panicking all by themselves. This is a jaw dropping admission. Imagine if he had publicly recognized that this was a deadly pandemic at the onset and then went on to set federal regulations to cope with it AND organized the national production of everything needed to address and contain the virus - just as many other countries have tried to do. His whole approach was and is to tell us it will go away quickly. Perhaps his idea of quickly is 3-5 years. And remember the vaccine he continues to promise will be available by November 1 - just in time to boost his reelection hopes? Here’s this from Buzzfeed News (thanks Mary Alice): AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford's major coronavirus vaccine trial, currently being tested at dozens of sites across the US, has been put on hold due to an "unexplained illness" in someone who received the vaccine. The pause, first reported by Stat on Tuesday, occurred due to a suspected serious adverse reaction in a single person participating in the trial in the UK. It's unknown what health problems the individual experienced. “This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials," the spokesperson said. "In large trials illnesses will happen by chance but must be independently reviewed," the spokesperson added. "We are working to expedite the review of the single event to minimize any potential impact on the trial timeline. We are committed to the safety of our participants and the highest standards of conduct in our trials.” Other scientists cautioned that the pause to investigate is exactly how clinical trials are supposed to work. Once again - no vaccine for me until its been properly trialed and tested. �Craig and I were talking about Joe Biden. I think he is the president we need at this moment. I have seen some signs which say things like: ‘oh okay, Joe Biden, whatever’, and this distresses me. I don’t think the other former presidential candidates could pull this country back together again, they were too invested in �their huge ideas. I’m not saying that they wouldn’t be good candidates, what I’m saying is that right now we need a mender. We need someone with a team that works to try and pull the country back to some form of cooperation and reasonable communication, and above all, a recognition of all the catastrophes facing the world and some willingness to address them. Whatever anyone thinks, the USA is not a separate entity in the world with only internal affairs to worry about. I have read people’s posts in which they say ‘how can this be happening?’ I think the time for wailing and moaning is past, as is the acceptance that this is the new normal. Its time for people running for all positions to be thinking about that overused phrase the greater good instead of what’s in it for me? One of the catastrophes facing us is the fires in the west. This photo is from a friends daughter who lives in San Francisco. New York Times In Oregon, wildfires have incinerated several communities this week, and thousands of people have evacuated their homes. In Washington State, a fire hit the town of Malden so quickly that deputies drove �through the streets screaming for residents to leave. In Colorado, a 100,000-acre blaze was slowed only by a rare September snowstorm. And in California, residents are coping with the worst wildfires on record. Smoke blotted out the sun yesterday in San Francisco, and ash fluttered down from the sky. “The sky had a faint orange glow that some said evoked a nuclear winter,” Thomas Fuller, The Times’s San Francisco bureau chief, told us. Jill Cowan, a Times reporter in Los Angeles, said, “The smoke and the poor air quality are just oppressive.” Life across much of the American West is pretty miserable right now — and global warming is at least partly to blame. Climate change has increased the frequency of very hot days, droughts and, by extension, wildfires. All that and the virus too! And from Crooked Media: A gender-reveal smoke bomb sparked a California wildfire that has burned through 10,000 acres and forced more than 20,000 people to evacuate. The woman who popularized gender reveal parties said it best: "For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone about your kid's penis.” Because, as we all know, a gender reveal smoke bomb in the middle of an extreme fire risk season is exactly the right thing to do. And I have one other thing to say here that has been bothering me. Craig and I are at home being extremely careful about the virus and yet I see people on FaceBook attending big gatherings without masks and any social distancing. Is the virus no longer a threat for them? Will their noncompliance keep me inside my house for longer? I don’t know, but photos of large groups make me feel uneasy now. This next item definitely applies to Craig and I. NPR With many of us confined to our homes during the coronavirus pandemic, we're spending a lot more time with our stuff these days — the piles of clothes that no longer fit, the ever-stubborn junk drawer or maybe it's those sentimental boxes of family heirlooms. You might be thinking about getting rid of some of that clutter, but you aren't exactly sure where to start. "COVID has acted like a catalyst," Hall told NPR's Weekend All Things Considered. "We're seeing a huge increase in people wanting to purge their homes, downsize and start moving into a simpler environment. I think a lot of people are taking a step back, reflecting on their mental, physical, spiritual, even their financial lives." Yesterday we put an old chest of drawers out on the curb - it was gone within the hour. Second to last leaf art day: �And Oliver is walking! ��Here he is, walking across the room at daycare. Zoe never sends him in his good clothes, and here you can see why. St-Girons. Me sitting inside a restaurant for lunch. ��It was lunchtime after everyone had been shopping at the market. There wasn’t a lot of eating going on outside but there was certainly drinking, and you can’t see them in either photo, but a lot of people had their dogs with them. ��Me coming out of a disused train tunnel along the Voie Verte. Craig walking up the hill in Foix. He had had his haircut at the salon and while he waited for my cut and dye to finish, he walked up behind the Foix Castle. �Foix Castle on a clear, sunny winters day. This last offering is from Zoe. In Australia this week, they had the national R U OK? Day: �I think we could do with this here. Lets use 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_2020-09-10_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-183 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 2020-09-10 Title A name given to the resource Day 183 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/9028eed98431b51ee62bae421521d100.pdf 2ccfe4f25ac0ed00d4c8c4eea2f6a6a6 PDF Text Text Day 184 by windoworks Today is my right eye surgery. Because it is not until 12:30pm, I was allowed to have a small cup of black tea, much earlier this morning. Very exciting. Later this morning the preparation will begin - dilating my eye, putting up an IV. Sedating me just enough that I lie perfectly still while the old lens is removed and a new manmade lens is put in its place. Thankfully its usually a very short procedure. This is the header from the Sydney Morning Herald and I have to say I’m rather offended by the subheading because this is blatantly stolen from one of my favorite children’s books: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Its about a nice little boy who has an awful day when a great many things go wrong. I think instead of describing Trump’s week, these words could be better used to describe Trump himself. �Washington Post The president has never really stopped minimizing the pandemic's severity, as The Fix demonstrated by documenting 109 separate comments — from late January ("we have it totally under control.”) to last Friday ("We’re rounding the corner on the virus.”) Yesterday Trump held a rally in Michigan where 5,500 people were crammed together on the edge of an airplane hanger with no masks, which was in complete violation of Governor Whitmer’s Executive Order. Once again he hammered his theme of chaos and destruction if Joe Biden were to win, while constantly belittling Governor Whitmer and all the procedures she has set in place to keep as many Michiganders as safe and virus free as possible. But of course his acolytes hung on his every duplicitous word. WARNING MICHIGANDERS SUPERSPREADER RALLY ALERT! Stay inside and avoid MAGAts for at least 14 days. Here’s an extract from a thoughtful piece in The Atlantic Trump was elected president on a promise to restore an idealized past in which America’s traditional aristocracy of race was unquestioned. But rather than restore that aristocracy, four years of catastrophe have—at least for the moment—discredited it. Instead of ushering in a golden age of prosperity and a return to the cultural conservatism of the 1950s, Trump’s presidency has radicalized millions of white �Americans who were previously inclined to dismiss systemic racism as a myth, the racial wealth gap as a product of Black cultural pathology, and discriminatory policing as a matter of a few bad apples. Those staples of the American racial discourse became hard to sustain this year, as the country was enveloped by overlapping national crises. The pandemic exposed the president. The nation needed an experienced policy maker; instead it saw a professional hustler, playing to the cameras and claiming that the virus would disappear. As statistics emerged showing that Americans of color disproportionately filled the ranks of essential workers, the unemployed, and the dead, the White House and its allies in the conservative media downplayed the danger of the virus, urging Americans to return to work and resurrect the Trump economy, no matter the cost. In the past, the dream of remaking society has faltered when white Americans have realized what they would have to sacrifice to deliver freedom. The question now is whether this time is different. And here’s how Trump really feels, that is, clinically unable to express empathy: New York Times When asked about the pain “Black people feel in this country,” Mr. Trump was unable to express empathy. Mr. Woodward pointed out that both he and Mr. Trump were “white, privileged” and asked if Mr. Trump was working to “understand the anger and the pain, particularly, Black people feel in this country.” Mr. Trump replied, “No,” and added: “You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.” The other significant point to Bob Woodward’s book is that he waited to have it published. Some of the most important statements Trump made to Woodward should have been shared publicly in real time. Shame on you Bob Woodward. It is only 52 days to the election. Here’s some things to consider: Washington Post About six in 10 registered voters nationwide say they want to cast their ballots before Election Day, a significant departure from previous years that will force the candidates to reshape how they campaign in the election season’s final weeks, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted by Ipsos. Fear of the coronavirus and doubts about the reliability of mail voting after months of attacks from President Trump are weighing heavily on Americans as they decide how to safely ensure their vote will be counted in this fall’s presidential election, according to the survey. In 2016, about 4 in 10 ballots were cast early. The likely surge in early voting and mail ballots will test election systems nationwide, many of which are �ill-prepared to contend with an unprecedented volume of early votes or help voters who are struggling to learn the rules around mail ballots. In Michigan there is comprehensive help on voting by mail and in person, all to be easily found online. But here’s another worrying issue: Crooked media • Meanwhile, social media companies are in talks with federal officials about another election threat: Trump’s possible intention to declare victory before all of the votes have been tallied, and/or refuse to accept the outcome if he loses. Should the last bulwark against a presidential election devolving into chaos and street violence be Mark “I made a website to compare the hotness of my classmates” Zuckerberg? Probably not! But here we are. Facebook is considering new policies for the time between when votes are cast and results are announced, and Twitter has announced new restrictions on content that attempts to undermine the integrity of the election. • Trump has not only happily accepted foreign help to steal the election, but sought to weaken the systems meant to guard against it. If that doesn’t work, he’s prepared to lie about the validity of the election itself, because he knows that in a fair election where every vote is counted, he will lose. That much is in our control. And remember how we keep dating the onset of the virus from March?Oh no, it appeared in the US MUCH earlier: Washington Post The team examined six years of electronic health records in Los Angeles, searching for reports with the word “cough,” a common covid-19 symptom. From this, they learned that respiratory failure hospitalizations spiked in late December last year and remained above historic levels for the next 10 weeks. “This is consistent with the growing body of data that suggests that there’s been community spread much earlier than we had anticipated,” one of the study's authors, an epidemiologist at the University of California at Los Angeles, told The Post. Speaking of the virus, Craig’s randomly selected virus test results came back last night - no coronavirus detected. Yay! Meanwhile in his classes one student has been told to quarantine after contact tracing and another student has suddenly lost her smell and was very scared and anxious yesterday. The numbers climbed to 451 positive cases at GVSU at 4pm yesterday. The risk assessment was at Moderate. We are all waiting to see what next week will bring after the Labor Day weekend, as the incubation seems to be anywhere from 3 to 14 days. Meanwhile, the first packet of Gina Bivins beautifully handmade masks arrived in Sydney for Zoe. This is very welcome as the blue medical masks are very expensive to buy in Australia. �And the wildfires continue to rage in the West: New York Times Wildfires rage in the West Fires continue to spread across the Western U.S. More than 500,000 Oregon residents — over 10 percent of the state’s population — have evacuated their homes. States usually send firefighters to help nearby states battle wildfires. But with so much of the West now on fire, there aren’t enough firefighters to go around. “California, Oregon, Washington — we are all in the same soup of cataclysmic fire,” Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said. And this (which is disturbing): Crooked Media: Thanks to climate change, this is the kind of fire season we can now expect every year. (The end of the world comes with neat photos, at least?) The last leaf art day: This next meme is both funny and not funny: �I am now receiving daily updates from Oliver’s daycare which makes it hard to decide which photo to choose. ���His grandfather has such high hopes of Oliver being a musician. Miscellaneous photos from the Ariege: L’Hers near Moulin Neuf �Me on the trail near Moulin Neuf ��Eating a seafood lunch at Mazeres. Pont Neuf bridge near Mazeres. These were our last days of exploring before the children began to arrive to celebrate Christmas with us. Remember to ask your friends and family: R U OK? And this from Will Rogers: One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been. Wise words. � 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_2020-09-11_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-184 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 2020-09-11 Title A name given to the resource Day 184 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/c124fc286a9cc75b1135ec6beeb37e8e.pdf c163623db7bb6ab8d4c75c21d3d781a2 PDF Text Text Day 185 by windoworks Although my right eye is almost back to normal, I have asked Craig to type my post for me this morning. I can see that my life going forward is going to be significantly different. After 40 years of automatically putting my glasses on my face when I woke up in the morning, I can now see everything perfectly and only need to put glasses on to read. I now own six pairs of reading glasses that are in every place in the house that I need them, and in the glovebox in the car. But it is a bit of a learning curve to remember to put them on to read, and take them off to walk around. So, as we all know not a single day goes by without some new disturbing development in the world. Let’s begin with the stats. US: new cases since yesterday 47,646; total: 6.47 M; new deaths: 1224; total deaths: 193K. Michigan: new cases 1423; total: 122K; new deaths: 6, total deaths: 6900. Kent County: new cases: 69, total: 8969; 0 new deaths; total deaths 171. So what this tells us is, as Dr Fauci and other scientists have said: this strain of the virus is far more contagious and easily spread, but seems to have a lower death rate. The lower death rate can also be attributed to the treatment that doctors are now using. It is interesting to note that in the beginning medical teams were completely overwhelmed by the myriad of unusual symptoms that patients presented with. As the months have gone by hospitals have modified their treatment regimes and are having a lot more success with keeping severe cases alive. At the same time many recovered patients have been left with debilitating symptoms and conditions. The new term for these people is ‘long haulers’. It is hard to remember now when the stories of long haulers first appeared, and at first they were not taken seriously by anyone. But over the months doctors have realized that this is real, even for some patients that just had a mild case. The Hill Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, warned Thursday that the U.S. should prepare for a difficult few months in the fight against COVID-19 as flu season approaches. “We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter because it’s not going to be easy,” Fauci said during a panel discussion with doctors from Harvard Medical School. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases went on to warn against underestimating the pandemic’s potential to cause continued destruction. I know this sounds dire, but this is realistic and we all need to follow his advice. Yesterday Dr Fauci said that he didn’t believe that life in the US would get back to anything like normal until late in 2021. I want to add here that ‘normal’ is a relative term, because I don’t think our lives will ever resemble the Before �Times again. In my mind it is better to think about the New Now, rather than yearn for what we once had. Who knows what new exciting things might lie ahead of us? So Oliver ��I am assuming this is cold spaghetti with orange food dye. In a later photo I’m pretty sure he ate some. And I also want to say that Oliver seems full of the joy of life most of the time. Flashback time. Zoe arrived! ��I think we took her walking on the Voie Verte her first day - and never mind jet lag! My eyes have almost returned to normal but not a long post today. It was a collaborative effort and I appreciate Craig struggling with my iPad keyboard and vagaries. Get a flu shot, wear your mask and I’ll leave you with this poem my friend Nancy posted. ��windoworks | September 12, 2020 at 2:04 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/p5zWgP-1dV Comment See all comments Like Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Stuff. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://pameladarling.wordpress.com/2020/09/12/day-185/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com � 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_2020-09-12_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-185 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 2020-09-12 Title A name given to the resource Day 185 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/5cbd7b3dd4ee422fef9a72bd1d62c455.pdf 51f37960ee694f0b2fcf187f6870454e PDF Text Text Day 186 by windoworks There are 50 days until the election. I think its going to be 50 days of madness. Crooked Media: It’s a little heavy-handed as a metaphor, but here in the waning months of Donald Trump’s first (and, please god, final) term in office, the country is on fire and for millions of people, the sky is no longer blue. There is exactly one way this gets better. Friends, we have eight (8) weekends left between now and the election. It's the homestretch. The final hour. Don't fuck this up → But that’s a discussion for tomorrow. Today, its all about the fires consuming much of the West. • Crooked media • The president, who today found time to congratulate a bank on forcing its employees back into the office, has had nothing to say about the inferno consuming a large swath of the country. It’s no mystery why—this particular swath holds no electoral value to him, so to hell with it. We refer once again back to the time Trump tried to withhold federal aid to California during the devastating 2018 wildfires because voters in the state hadn’t supported him. (Never mind that many of the rural residents being forced from their homes did in fact vote for Trump; they’re irrelevant to his re-election, and thus irrelevant to him.) • Not only is Trump deeply uninterested in disasters affecting blue states, his nonstop fear-mongering has made the situation more dangerous. False rumors that left-wing activists have started fires in Oregon have proliferated on social media, fueled by a post from the anonymous account at the heart of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Oregon authorities, who have been inundated with calls about the rumors, have had to beg people to stop spreading misinformation that’s putting extra strain on first responders and encouraging some credulous conservatives to defy evacuation orders. • In reality, the mechanism is incredibly straightforward. As greenhouse-gas emissions raise temperatures (see: California’s recent triple-digit heat waves), forests and vegetation dry out, creating prime conditions for fast-moving fires. Six of the largest wildfires in California’s history have occurred this year. and if we re-elect the guy with a passion for environmental deregulation, the impacts will keep accelerating. As one climate scientist told Buzzfeed, “This is very much a way station on the path to a new future. We have not reached the peak. In fact, no one knows where the peak is.” I really like Crooked Media, they seem to cut to the core of the subject. My daughter put me on to them and I get a post from them each week day. The post is funny, ironic and always hard hitting. I believe they’re an offshoot of PodSaveAmerica. In some ways I think they speak to the younger generation and in language that they feel comfortable with. I also think that generation holds an enormous weight of responsibility on their shoulders - more and more my generation believes these young ones will fix it. Our �generation’s argument was - your grandchildren will say: you were there, why didn’t you do something? Truthfully, I think we are there, now. Why aren’t we doing something? NPR The wave of fires that erupted this week on the West Coast, like previous record-breaking blazes, are further validation of something forest ecologists and fire veterans have been saying for years: that no amount of firefighting resources will avert the next big wildfire. Instead of treating wildfires as a threat to be swiftly extinguished, communities need to learn to live with fire. And this explains so much about me: �Crooked Media: ICE flew immigrant detainees to Virginia this summer in order to more quickly transfer tactical border teams to inflame protests, and as a result, fueled a major coronavirus outbreak. According to a DHS official, the primary reason the detainees were transferred was to circumvent rules that bar ICE �employees from traveling on charter flights unless detainees are also aboard. Dozens of the people moved tested positive for the coronavirus after their arrival at an immigration jail in Virginia; the outbreak infected more than 300 inmates at the facility, one of whom died. A useful story to tell your grandchildren one day when you’re trying to explain the Trump administration’s cruelty towards immigrants, failure to contain a deadly virus, and descent into fascism in the span of one TikTok, or whatever the kids are watching on their Elon Musk brain implants by then. Yesterday was a tiring day and I think today might be also. It was challenging dealing with one adjusted eye, but now I have two. I know that about 8 weeks from now I will no longer think about this, but today it is still a wonder to see clearly - not only across the room but across the block to another street. It occurs to me that this must be what it is like for most children - never questioning the ability to see everything. On Friday night Craig received an email from one of his first year Honors students. Remember I told you that she had lost her sense of smell? Well by Friday, one of her two roommates had lost hers sense of smell too, so they both were tested and then, as a precaution, GVSU moved them to an isolation dormitory together, on campus. She told Craig that she and this roommate had followed all the rules carefully, but their third roommate had not. She had invited friends into their rooms and allowed those friends to use �their bathroom. Craig’s student had gone home last weekend because it was her birthday and she caught up with her grandmother. Now all her family has to be tested, and she is wracked with guilt. On so many levels, this isn’t fair. GVSU keeps assuring everyone that they have the situation under control, but they really haven’t. The office manager for Honors is quarantining at home with the rest of her family because her daughter at GVSU tested positive. We haven’t even seen the results of Labor Day yet. I see that the petition to overturn the Michigan State of Emergency has reached 400,000 signatures and they only need 100,000 more. I don’t understand people who think its all right to try to return to normal or favor herd immunity, or even make a decision that will adversely affect me. In the end it comes down to individual choice. Each of us must do what we think is the best thing for ourselves and our loved ones. New leaf art! My sister-in-law sent me a lot more leaf art photos. One each day. Its Oliver time! Oliver and his mother went to visit a second cousin in the New South Wales countryside near Dubbo. They visited a winery for wine tasting and Zoe took this photo. The best part of her Instagram posts with Oliver are the comments she puts on them. ��On Zoe’s very next day in La Bastide, we took her to the medieval part of Carcassonne, below the walled town, to the Saturday market. �����First we walked beside the canal; then we watched them setting up for the upcoming Christmas Market; the big cities often have closed in halls for meat and fish; winter vegetables for sale. As I write this post this morning, Craig tells me that France had a surge of 10,561 new virus cases yesterday with 772 clusters being investigated. In England the cases have risen by 3,000 for each of the last two days. The Czech Republic has such a surge of new cases that Germany has closed her borders to that country. We’re still in it. Hunker down together - we can do this. �Exactly. � 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_2020-09-13_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-186 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 2020-09-13 Title A name given to the resource Day 186 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/c85202052da59a5732c191f827c8a093.pdf 05a37186074f20f92818dc0a220ed86d PDF Text Text Day 187 by windoworks Does anyone else have long, detailed dreams which are full of anger and unfairness? Or is it just me? Last night the dreamscape felt like a battleground and I’m not sure I came out a winner. This morning I watched Carl Bernstein talk about Trump’s shocking admission on tape that he lied to us all about the virus. He said this was more egregious than Nixon and the Watergate tapes, and that the Republican leaders should demand that Trump resign. I think Trump will stay to the bitter end but Craig thinks he might resign and then get Pence to pardon him. Listen, I don’t think there’s a mat big enough to sweep all this bullshit under. I wonder if he considers leaving the US and living out his days somewhere else? And I’m waiting for his children and his wife to declare loudly ‘we didn’t know’. I have heard it said that Joe Biden doesn’t have any plans. Here’s these: A FB post: For those of you who want to vote FOR something as opposed to just voting against, here is information to consider. This stopped being Republican vs Democrat in January—we are ALL Americans and we are ALL vulnerable. Joe Biden has created a war cabinet-in-waiting on the coronavirus pandemic, drafting plans for distributing vaccines and personal protective gear, dramatically ramping up testing, safely reopening schools and addressing health-care disparities. And: ��Also: And lastly: �So there you are. Last week was the 19th anniversary of 9/11. The virus overpowered the remembrance ceremonies and I don’t believe Trump even mentioned it. However, Crooked Media ran this: There are many ways to mark the anniversary of 9/11: You might think back on where you were, read oral histories of the day, or, if you’re the Trump administration, admit to defunding a health program for 9/11 first responders. A Thursday New York Daily News report revealed that the Treasury Department has secretly withheld nearly $4 million from a program for FDNY firefighters and medics suffering from 9/11related illness. Treasury spokeswoman Rebecca Miller acknowledged today that the administration siphoned off money from the program to cover some of the city’s Medicare debt. Miller blamed “this really unfortunate situation” on “administrative hurdles,” but couldn’t explain why the program’s overseer, who had been asking the Treasury about the redirected funds for years, never received an answer. �Yesterday I wrote about Crooked Media and my daughter added some more information: Crooked Media is actually the overall company started by Obama’s ex-staffers. It houses many podcasts including Pod Save America, and Pod Save the World which is also fabulous. As is Lovett or Leave It. So check those out if you’re interested. Also, Crooked Media posts on weekdays only, so I have no new gems to share on Monday morning. As of today the US has 6,710,031 cases in total and 198,533 deaths. I have seen this prediction of deaths in the US by January 1: 415,090. That’s more than twice the deaths recorded now. Looking at the stats every day, it is easy to get innured to them. As numbers alone they are astounding and alarming - because they are happening to someone else. But lately the someone else is closer to me and mine than before. I mustn’t panic but my anxiety levels continue to fluctuate daily. Its exhausting. I have no new data for Michigan or Kent County. The numbers are at least 2 days out of date. There is no doubt though, that the virus is still out there and extremely active - so be careful. Leaf art. Here’s two to make us all feel better. ��And now, Oliver. ��Here is Oliver, sitting on the couch with a game controller in his hands - which luckily, he has no idea how to operate. His second cousins (or third cousins once removed - who knows) are having so much fun with Oliver and yesterday when the boys had to leave for school, Oliver crawled frantically after them as they went out the door and then lay on the floor and sobbed. And to cheer us up even more, here’s s photo of Portloe in Cornwall from my niece Elle. While I was having a facial in Foix, Craig and Zoe climbed to the Saint Sauveur Cross above Foix. It was a steep climb. ����Have you wondered what has happened to all those planes that are no longer crossing our skies? They have gone to various arid spots across the world. Here’s some somewhere in the US. �� 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_2020-09-14_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-187 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 2020-09-14 Title A name given to the resource Day 187 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/6ca0c53bf368be6fc1ba556b7f7c8a1f.pdf 8f8e70fdbc7dd9f35e49f834115bc485 PDF Text Text Day 188 by windoworks Every morning I read the mail in my Inbox. I subscribe to The Atlantic, NPR. The New York Times, Washington Post and Crooked Media. Some I pay for and some are free. I also read posts from The Hill and The Guardian. Some mornings are quiet and some are packed with unbelievable developments. This morning Crooked Media fell into the entirely unbelievable category. Here are some excerpts: With 50 days to go until the election, it’s important to be very clear about what Donald Trump and his allies are positing: The only valid election results are those that reinstall him, the only valid science is that which supports his political message, and the only valid laws are those that serve his purposes. Get involved in this election if for no other reason than to make sure there’s a next one. Remember: his pal Putin just got himself re-elected for 16 more years in Russia - and he gets rid of his outspoken opponents by poisoning them, anywhere in the world. ��And here’s a truly disturbing story from Crooked Media, which I find too scary to believe - but I think there must be a grain of truth in it: A nurse at an ICE detention center in Georgia has filed a whistleblower complaint about “jarring medical neglect” at the facility. The nurse, Dawn Wooten, alleged that the Irwin County Detention Center had underreported coronavirus cases, knowingly put staff and detainees at risk of exposure, and refused to test symptomatic detainees. Beyond the dangerous coronavirus practices, Wooten and multiple other women described an inordinate number of hysterectomies performed at the detention center. Wooten said of the facility’s consistently-used gynecologist, “Everybody he sees has a hysterectomy—just about everybody.” Many of the detained women told Wooten they didn’t understand why they were being forced to have the surgery. One detained immigrant told the advocacy group Project South, “When I met all these women who had had surgeries, I thought this was like an experimental concentration camp. It was like they’re experimenting with our bodies.” And now, to the fires in the west: Washington Post Tens of thousands of people remain displaced from their homes in what is shaping up to be perhaps the worst wildfire season in American history. In California, more than 3.2 million acres have burned over the last three weeks. Three of the four largest wildfires in the state’s history are burning right now. In Washington state, more than 665,000 acres of land have burned and the skies over Seattle are choked with smoke. At least 24 have died in California and 10 have died in Oregon, including children. Dozens more people remain missing. The air quality in the Pacific Northwest ranks among the worst anywhere in the world. In Nevada over the weekend, Trump blamed the fires on poor “forest management,” by which he means there has not being enough logging over the past few decades and that efforts to clear underbrush on federal land have been insufficient. During a previous wave of California fires, Trump spoke about the need for more “raking” in the forests. This is also the third year in a row that Trump threatened to withhold federal emergency funds for fighting California’s fires. Scientists have said for years that rising temperatures caused by climate change are making annual fire seasons longer and more damaging. They have said these trends will only accelerate in the future. But Trump has dismissed man-made climate change as a “hoax” and has stocked his administration with like-minded skeptics of the scientific community’s consensus. But here’s what Trump said yesterday: Crooked Media: At least 33 people have died in the west coast wildfires, and we’ve only just begun to learn their heartbreaking stories. On his visit to Sacramento, CA, today, President Trump had this assessment of climate change and the resulting devastation: “It'll start getting cooler. You just watch…I don't think science knows, actually.” �Its hard for me to deal with this, especially as I come from socialist leaning countries. The system in New Zealand and Australia is significantly different. Now I have lived too long away for me to remember New Zealand politics and it has changed dramatically since I left there at age almost 25. I am more familiar with Australian politics. I was talking about this the other day. For a start, the public doesn’t choose the Prime Minister, the members of the party’s Cabinet does, by vote. I don’t think a Trump like candidate would be chosen to lead his party, but even if he was, his actions would quickly cause concern within the Cabinet and they would secretly find another suitable candidate for Prime Minister and conduct a vote of no confidence (called a spill) and replace Trump overnight. The morning would dawn with he and his family moving out of The Lodge (Australia’s PM residence). And before you scoff, this has happened a number of times in my memory. Australians regard their politicians as just ordinary people and I think New Zealand is the same. During the first lockdown in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave her first FaceBook video sitting in a comfy chair, dressed in sweats with no makeup as she had just managed to get her toddler safely asleep in bed. She looked directly at the camera, explained what was happening, what was going to happen, and then said “email or text me and ask me anything. I’ll answer as best I can”. Doesn’t that seem like an alternate universe to you? As the pandemic began to appear in Australia, the Prime Minister , Scott Morrison, began to take his lead from Jacinda. There doesn’t seem to be the onslaught of misinformation, lies and deception happening there. There are protests but I’m pretty sure that so far no one has shot anyone at a protest. And in Australia, voting is compulsory. When you go to the polls to vote, you name is crossed out and if you didn’t vote for no good reason, an election official will visit your house after the election and fine you up to $80AUS. Elections are always held on a Saturday and polling places are usually elementary and high schools - which gives the Parents Association the opportunity to hold a fundraising cake stall for the school. There’s often a barbecue too. More than 96% of eligible Australians are enrolled to vote, and of those approximately 90% turn out to vote. �And: �The new normal Over the centuries, Europe has suffered through plagues, pestilence and the Black Death. Many old palazzos that dot Italy's Tuscany region have a unique architectural quirk — pint-sized “wine windows” �that are used to keep vino merchants and buyers apart. They were indispensable for quarantining during the bubonic plague that devastated Florence, which killed thousands. When Italy's harsh coronavirus lockdown was imposed in March, Florentines used their charming wine windows again to practice COVID-era social distancing. Leaf art: Oliver had a simply wonderful time at Craig’s cousins daughter’s house (keep up). The two boys (8th grade and 6th grade) adored Oliver and he adored them back. Yesterday, as they were leaving for school, each boy came back for one last cuddle with Oliver, as he and Zoe and her friend Ange were driving back to Sydney later. I have many farm photos to share. �Zoe and Oliver gazing at a waterfall. Flashback: so after my facial and lunch, we visited inside Chateau de Foix. In 1034, the castle became capital of the County of Foix and played a decisive role in medieval military history. During the two following centuries, the castle was home to Counts with shining personalities who became the soul of the Occitan resistance during the crusade against the Albigensians. The county became a privileged refuge for persecuted Cathars. From the 14th century, the Counts of Foix spent less and less time in the uncomfortable castle, preferring the Governors' Palace (Palais des gouverneurs). From 1479, the Counts of Foix became Kings of Navarre and the last of them, made Henri IV of France, annexed his Pyrrenean lands to France. Wikipedia �Inside the castle, this was Henri IV’s bed. The hangings were to keep the cold out and damn, it was cold inside. �Zoe and I on the battlements overlooking Foix. ���This castle was built as a fortress in the 7th century and from its vantage point, the lords could oversee access to the Ariege. And just to make you smile: Tomorrow then. Who knows what lies in store for us? � 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_2020-09-15_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-188 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 2020-09-15 Title A name given to the resource Day 188 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/80cf57fcb452b8a5df6ce04a012d79e5.pdf 0ebce556416c50d528257949c98c7345 PDF Text Text Day 189 by windoworks I have some really long but really important articles saved in my fact file today - and I’m not quite sure where to start. Trump held a town hall in Philadelphia last night and it didn’t go well. What he didn’t realize was that town halls are a very different animal to rallies. At a rally you are entirely surrounded by fans - people (in his case) blindly adore and follow you, no matter what rubbish pops out of your mouth. Town halls, �however, have people ready to question your every move and KNOW when you’re lying. Here’s a fact check on the lies he told: New York Times: President Trump on Tuesday night falsely claimed that “we were short on ventilators because the cupboards were bare when we took it over.” The Strategic National Stockpile, the government’s repository of medicines and medicinal products, contained more than $7 billion worth of supplies when Mr. Trump took office, including more than 16,000 ventilators. Speaking at an ABC News town hall in Philadelphia, he repeated his characterization of restrictions placed on travel from China and Europe as “bans” that saved “thousands of lives.” The restrictions only applied to foreign nationals and included exceptions, ultimately allowing 40,000 people to travel from China to the United States from the end of January to April. Similar restrictions were placed on travel from Europe, after the virus was already widespread in New York City. The president also misleadingly claimed that “I was so far ahead with my closing,” which he said occurred in January. In fact, states began in March to issue stay-at-home and social-distancing orders, and Mr. Trump resisted those efforts. One model showed that 36,000 fewer people would have died had those measures been in place one week earlier. Even after the federal government recommended social distancing on March 16, Mr. Trump continued to urge reopening. He claimed undue credit for calling in the National Guard to Minneapolis. It was the governor of Minnesota, not him, who activated the state’s National Guard. The president falsely claimed “we’re not going to hurt preexisting conditions” while Democrats “will get rid of preexisting conditions.” His administration has asked the Supreme Court to strike down the health care law that includes protections for patients with pre-existing conditions, and in 2017 unsuccessfully attempted to repeal it. Democrats and their nominee Joseph R. Biden Jr. have consistently aimed to uphold that law. Finally, he claimed that the coronavirus “goes away” even without a vaccine because “you’ll develop like a herd mentality.” Mr. Trump was likely referring to “herd immunity,” which occurs when the virus can no longer spread widely. Public health officials have warned that this could require 70 percent of the population to develop antibodies. Without a vaccine, this could mean an enormous death toll. Now I’m sure, dear readers, that you knew all of that, but did you notice this: you’ll develop like a herd mentality ? If that doesn’t ring any alarm bells........... �This leads me to a very long article headed: The Turbulent Twenties in a publication called NOEMA. I’ll try to cherry pick the main points. According to Demographic-Structural Theory, in the twenty-first century, America was likely to get a populist, America-first leader who would sow a whirlwind of conflict. The risk of political instability is due to the behavior of elites, who all too often react to long-term increases in population by committing three cardinal sins. First, faced with a surge of labor that dampens growth in wages and productivity, elites seek to take a larger portion of economic gains for themselves, driving up inequality. Second, facing greater competition for elite wealth and status, they tighten up the path to mobility to favor themselves and their progeny. Third, anxious to hold on to their rising fortunes, they do all they can to resist taxation of their wealth and profits, even if that means starving the government of needed revenues, leading to decaying infrastructure, declining public services and fast-rising government debts. Okay so here we are. Now: Top leadership matters. Leaders who aim to be inclusive and solve national problems can manage conflicts and defer a crisis. However, leaders who seek to benefit from and fan political divisions bring the final crisis closer. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police have delivered a double-barreled crisis to U.S. politics. �And it all leads to this: Is the U.S. likely headed for still greater protests and violence? In a word, yes. Inequality and polarization have not been this high since the nineteenth century. Democrats are certain that if Donald Trump is reelected, American democracy will not survive. Republicans are equally certain that if Trump loses, radical socialists will seize the wealth of elites and distribute it to underserving poor and minorities, forever destroying the economy of the United States. Both sides are also convinced that the other side intends to change the democratic “rules of the game” in ways that will make it impossible for them to compete effectively in future elections. In such conditions, elections are not merely contests over policy preferences; they become existential battles for the future of the nation. Whichever party loses is likely to view the results as rigged and the outcome as intolerable. I have not been doing well, mentally and emotionally, and yesterday my counselor sent me an article titled: Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful Here’s how to pull yourself out of despair and live your life Now its a long article and if you want to read it and keep it for daily reference (I’m not joking - its that good), here’s the link: https://elemental.medium.com/your-surge-capacity-is-depleted-it-s-why-you-feelawful-de285d542f4c Here are some points to follow: 1. Accept that life is different right now 2. Expect less from yourself 3. Recognize the different aspects of grief 4. Look for activities, new and old, that continue to fulfill you 5. Focus on maintaining and strengthening important relationships 6. Begin slowly building your resilience bank account And to conclude: I might have intellectually accepted back in March that the next two years (or more?) are going to be nothing like normal, and not even predictable in how they won’t be normal. But cognitively recognizing and accepting that fact and emotionally incorporating that reality into everyday life aren’t the same. Our new normal is always feeling a little off balance, like trying to stand in a dinghy on rough seas, and not �knowing when the storm will pass. But humans can get better at anything with practice, so at least I now have some ideas for working on my sea legs. So what else could possibly be happening right now? Well, Scotland is seriously considering leaving the United Kingdom and Northern and Southern Ireland are also grappling with that decision. PM Boris Johnson might be the last prime minister of the UK. There’s a challenging thought. Hurricane Sally has made landfall and is moving inland over Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, causing catastrophic and historic flooding. The storm rapidly intensified to a Category 2 as it came ashore. Carnival Cruise Line is seeking off 18 more ships, as are other cruise lines. British Airways may disappear completely by next year, and both Air New Zealand and Qantas are furloughing their long haul crews. Astronomers have found life on Venus (I’ll just leave that there) and Fox News says that Trump has done all he can to slow the spread of the virus - and remember, the Fox News watchers believe him. Here’s a photo from the West Coast (perhaps Portland, I forget) And here’s a photo from yesterday taken in East Grand Rapids: �Thats the smoke from the fires on the west coast. Leaf art �Its Oliver time! �Oliver does love a big bath. He only has a baby bath at home. �Flashback: Toulouse. Toulouse is the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus (formerly EADS), the SPOT satellite system, ATR and the Aerospace Valley. It also hosts the European headquarters of Intel and CNES's Toulouse Space Centre (CST), the largest space centre in Europe. Thales Alenia Space, ATR, SAFRAN, Liebherr-Aerospace and Airbus Defence and Space also have a significant presence in Toulouse. The University of Toulouse is one of the oldest in Europe (founded in 1229) and, with more than 103,000 students, it is the fourth-largest university campus in France, after the universities of Paris, Lyon and Lille. Founded by the Romans, the city was the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom in the 5th century and the capital of the province of Languedoc in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period (provinces were abolished during the French Revolution), making it the unofficial capital of the cultural region of Occitania (Southern France). It is now the capital of the Occitanie region, the second largest region in Metropolitan France. ����From the top: Archeological Museum - remains of the Roman bath house; one bust of a notable Roman in a room of many notable Roman busts; and there we are in that room; and in the Toulouse Christmas market. That’s Zoe and I on the left of the photo. We had a wonderful lunch, followed by the museum and then browsing the market. I liked Toulouse a lot. A thought to leave you with: �� 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_2020-09-16_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-189 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 2020-09-16 Title A name given to the resource Day 189 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/da9b91753fd7f8e172c72e4db983dcf4.pdf 7a4f23d6055101edc9114ac15e07e05c PDF Text Text Day 190 by windoworks Well, I think that covers it. Yesterday after she read my post, my friend Mary Alice gave me this sage advice: May you find one small thing every day that lightens the load. And put down one thing large or small that burdens you . So I’m sharing this with you all. Its obviously going to be more than crazy between now and the end result of the election. Combined with that, we have the extraordinary weather everywhere - the fires in the west, the winds and flooding in the �south east - and the onset of fall with no Halloween candy walks and limited Thanksgiving celebrations and only a virtual StreetFair celebration in Eastown. And did I mention the onset of flu season? First up Grand Valley State University. Yesterday afternoon Craig received this email: • Ottawa County, Mich. – The State of Michigan and Ottawa County are under states of emergency because of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 poses an imminent danger to public health. The public health officer of the Ottawa County Department of Public Health (OCDPH) has issued an order requiring all Grand Valley State University (GVSU) students living in on-campus housing or living in off-campus housing in Allendale Township, Michigan, to remain in their designated residence at all times for 14 days beginning September 17, 2020, at 12:01 a.m. and ending October 1, 2020, 11:59 p.m. Students may not return to their home address unless for an emergency. • Since August 23, 2020, there have been more than 600 cases of COVID-19 in the student population living on or near the GVSU campus in Allendale Township, Michigan. Case rates per million have continued to rise, indicating disease spread among GVSU students and rates have exceeded maximum indicator thresholds for risk to the community. The majority of cases are among off-campus students and appear to be driven by congregate living and congregate gathering. GVSU cases have consistently reported a lower number of contacts, compared to non-GVSU cases in Ottawa County. During OCDPH’s case investigation, many students report having no contacts or refuse to disclose contacts. Shortly after that Craig received another email from the GVSU President saying ‘we can do this’. I am not impressed. This is the result of the ‘lets reopen the college and then wait and see what happens’ game plan. Craig’s students are glad that they are on campus but depressed that they are mostly confined to their rooms. As of midnight last night, there are no sports events, no open cafeterias (take out only) and so on. I am disturbed that predominantly off campus students are reporting no contacts or refusing to disclose. The girl who infected her 2 other roommates was seen to be leaving the college yesterday with her mother and all her belongings. The four students that Craig knows of, who contracted the virus, are slowly recovering. The girls lost their sense of small and taste and had some body aches. The boys had coughs, body aches and difficulty breathing, but are also slowly recovering. I am so grateful that Craig is teaching entirely online for the foreseeable future. I see that many universities across the country are struggling with the virus and ultimately, with their financial survival. This is not just common here in the States - it is happening in many places across the world. I lifted this quote from yesterday’s Governor Whitmer’s press conference: • Grand Rapids, Lansing and UP Regions: increased to more than 70 cases per million people per day. • These increases are in large part because of outbreaks associated with universities and colleges. Here are some ‘you can’t make this stuff up’ items: 1. Crooked Media: In his latest instance of non-political up-playing, Trump took creditfor the Big Ten Conference’s announcement that its football season would resume at the end of October after all, �reversing its earlier decision. Trump has been pressuring the league to play for the boost he thinks it’ll give him in key swing states, without regard for the danger it would pose to student athletes. One university president denied that Trump had anything to do with the decision, but the Big Ten itself sees players’ exposure as so inevitable (and apparently acceptable) that it has plans to study the cardiac effects of the virus on infected athletes. 2. Crooked Media: A Maine wedding has now been linked to more than 175 coronavirus cases and the deaths of seven people, none of whom were attendees. The much darker Four Weddings and a Funeral sequel that absolutely no one asked for. 3. Washington Post Trump health appointee taking medical leave after calling on president’s supporters to prepare for insurrection: Michael Caputo, the top communications official at the Department of Health and Human Services, is taking a 60-day medical leave and his top aide, Paul Alexander, will leave HHS entirely, the agency said. The move comes three days after Caputo urged President Trump’s supporters to prepare for armed conflict after the election and accused government scientists of “sedition.” Alexander sought to alter and delay CDC coronavirus reports that he thought would make Trump look bad, and tried to control what Dr. Anthony Fauci could say in public appearances. 4. New York Times: South Dakota’s attorney general, Jason Ravnsborg, was driving home alone on Saturday night when his car hit something — possibly a deer, he told the authorities. The next day, a man was found dead near the highway, and Ravnsborg is now under investigation. 5. Washington Post Former FBI counterespionage chief Peter Strzok reveals in his new memoir, “Compromised,” that federal investigators believed there was a possibility that Trump might be a modern-day “Manchurian candidate.” Strzok opened the FBI’s 2016 investigation into whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to help his election. He was ultimately removed from former special counsel Bob Mueller’s team because of private text messages with FBI lawyer Lisa Page that disparaged the president. I’m sure there are more like this, but thats enough for today. In New Zealand, a journalist and his family returned home from Rarotonga after 16 months of living there. He is a writer for newsroom.co.nz and my son Zar asks that if your interested please make a donation or subscribe. Here’s a little from the article: Flight NZ945 to Auckland helped prepare its 27 extremely well-spaced passengers, just a little, for the daunting prospect that was Auckland, community transmission and Level 2.5 lockdown. The flight crew showed us how to pinch our masks around our noses; I learnt that every time I exhaled, my reading glasses would mist up. �Little things, that billions of people around the world discovered months ago – but not us. We had been living in a big, tropical Covid-free bubble. It’s now day three of 14. Our first two full days in isolation were magnificent. The Government’s managed isolation and quarantine officials have provided our family adjoining rooms on the hotel’s 12th floor; we have three double beds, two TVs, two fridges, and one bath. As I write this in the dark early morning, I’m looking down on a street sweeper passing by the neon art of Aotea Square. We can’t use the gym, or the restaurant, or the rooftop cocktail bar, of course. Nor would we expect to. As we were told when our bus pulled up at the hotel, Auckland may be in Level 2.5, but here at the isolation facility we’re at Level 4. Four times a day, pre-ordered meals and snacks in plastic containers and brown paper bags are left at our door, with a discreet knock. By the time we’ve donned our masks and opened the door, whoever delivered them is gone. Once a day, the nurse knocks at the door to take our temperatures. There are no housekeepers to turn down the beds and clean the rooms; instead, we’re supplied with a sponge, a 500ml bottle of Palmolive dishwashing liquid, and a 450ml bottle of lavender meadows-scented Harpic toilet cleaner. The main thrust of his article is this: New Zealand’s military and health officials are operating a world- class managed isolation network that welcomed its 50,000th inbound traveller yesterday. But some of that half a billion dollars could be more carefully targeted, Jonathan Milne argues. But for my purposes, I just wanted to let you have a peek into what a 14 day quarantine entering another country looks like. This is happening in both New Zealand and Australia - and who are these people quarantining, you ask. Only returning citizens. New Zealand has allowed 50,000 citizens back and there are another 30,000 odd waiting to be allowed in. Last week ( just for fun) I looked up flights to Sydney Auckland online. There was nothing on the page except this: there are no available flights at this time. You have to seek government permission. Craig and I would be given permission by the NZ government to fly there because I am a NZ citizen by birth and Craig is my spouse. We would also be given permission to fly into Australia because we both hold Australian passports. Last night we were FaceTiming with Zar in New Zealand and I asked him when the government thought they might allow tourists back into the country. He said the short answer was sometime in 2022. It’s all a bit sobering, isn’t it? Leaf art time! Two today. I think ��No, I have no idea how its done. And now to my one small thing today that lightens the load: Oliver ��Last night it was just me talking to Zoe and Oliver as Craig was teaching online. Oliver spent some time talking to me, in whole Oliver sentences, while holding up blocks and puzzle pieces for my inspection. The inflections were correct but I have no idea what he was saying. Flashback: around La Bastide. �����Sunsets, moonrises, Christmas decorations in the Main Street of La Bastide, walks near our house and the church bell tower in the sunset. And I’ll leave you with this from Crooked Media. Donald Trump has no case to make for his own reelection that isn’t an outrageous lie, and in the process of propagating those lies, he continues to undermine coronavirus measures that would protect American lives and advocate for policies that do the opposite. The good news is, we have another option. 48 days. (Authors note: today its 47 days. Get ready.) � 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_2020-09-17_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-190 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 2020-09-17 Title A name given to the resource Day 190 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/656fe2eddc94fb4d4dc78c7a3504a6d7.pdf 43858706402eefc9edb0b64e948c853f PDF Text Text Day 191 by windoworks This is a classroom in Thailand. In other places in the world such as Thailand, Vietnam, and a number of African countries, they have listened attentively to their scientists and done exactly as they recommended. These countries have done so much better than us at containing and addressing the virus. Meanwhile, here where LaLaLand seems to have extended across the whole nation, especially in Trump strongholds, daily insanity reigns. Some examples: Trump has ordered that all schools begin teaching American history and values - and by that he means white, rich segregated 1950 values. He has no authority over school curriculum at all - but when has that ever stopped him? He has ordered all references to implicit racial bias training and education to be removed from all federal agencies. The chief legal officer of the USA, Willian Barr, has likened a Stay At Home order to slavery. I’m pretty sure every Black person finds that enormously offensive. Frankly I find that offensive - and dangerous. There are 46 days until the election - get ready for every crazy you can think of and more. Olivia Troye, a Homeland Security Advisor to VP Pence and his lead staffer on the coronavirus task force has resigned and is speaking out about Trump. She said the defining moment was when Trump said he was glad about the pandemic because it meant he didn’t have to shake hands with all those disgusting people. �Apparently, the administration has authorized natural gas freight trains going through towns with no penalty (or safeguards). I’m not sure the natural gas companies will want to do that. But one bright moment: a federal judge has ordered the USPS to reinstall all machinery removed and return services to pre Louis DeJoy status, after a lawsuit brought by 14 State Attorneys-General. There are still some checks and balances. In a new section , I am offering The View From Far-away. To begin with, I have asked my 3 children and my niece to tell us what it has been like for them during the pandemic. First up, my niece Elle Benjamin, who lives with her partner Terry, in Cornwall, England. I feel like things moved very quickly in the UK, before I really understood what was happening in the world, I was in complete lockdown. I worked from home for a month or so until unfortunately worked dried up and my computer broke! Left with endless time and nothing to do I began to focus on my latest hobby, weaving, (thank goodness for online shopping!) I filled my walls with creations and began making and selling rainbows to raise money for the NHS. We also clapped every Thursday at 8pm for the NHS, by the end we were banging pots and singing Cornish songs. I looked forward to seeing my neighbors and have a shouting conversation from our driveways. We discussed big things like what we couldn’t get in our food shop and what new things they would bake for me to sample this week. We began to explore the local area by foot. We were totally unaware of the amazing forests and walks we had near our house! When restrictions eased we were able to drive to explore parts of the beautiful Cornish coast. It was brilliant, no tourists, no queues, no issue about finding parking, and the Summer weather was absolutely beautiful!My boyfriend and I also managed to share our 1 bedroom flat without killing each other, even though he has possibly the worlds loudest hobby, DJing! Overall I really enjoyed lockdown in Cornwall. I began speaking to people I hadn’t spoken to for years and officially launched my new craft business. There were times when I did feel a bit out of touch with the crisis, I stopped watching the news and just took time to relax and really understand what was important to me. Last night my friend Mary Alice sent me an article about a woman who joined the Pfizer vaccine trial. I have picked out relevant paragraphs and I should point out that she has no idea if she received the vaccine or a placebo. Clinical trials need to be blind trials to be reliable. That means that the nurse administering the dose and the recipient have no idea of what their dose is. Only the scientists running the trial know who got what. Now you know �New York Times I am Patient 1133. I’ve never been in a medical trial before and I never wanted to be. As someone who suffers from pretty significant anxiety about my health, I am, in theory, the last person who should ever do any medical trial at all, and, on the way up to the hospital, this thought occurred to me numerous times. But on Tuesday, Sept. 8, I did it anyway. I drove up to Yale New Haven Hospital to get my first of two doses of the experimental Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. Smart people are worried about this vaccine. As President Trump pushes for the quick rollout, public trust is eroding. Only 21 percentof Americans surveyed in a CBS poll this month said they would get the vaccine as soon as possible if one was offered at no cost. It’s not hard to see where this is heading: a nightmare in which we have a vaccine yet mistrust of the government is so great that people won’t take it. Three in four Democrats say if a vaccine were to become available this year, their first thought would be that it was rushed without enough testing, CBS reported. These numbers just strengthened my resolve. I knew I had to do my part to help create a safe vaccine. I have never felt myself to have a calling but all of a sudden, I felt like a middle-aged Joan of Arc, except Jewish and without any of the actual fighting, and none of the fabulous armor (and hopefully no burning at the stake.) As soon as I heard there were coronavirus vaccine trials, I fought for a chance to be in them. I filled out application after application. I talked to doctors and more doctors. I begged people. I had to do this. Living through my city’s darkest hour had somehow rearranged my DNA, made me the kind of person who enrolls in medical trials. There was something I could do to help stop all this. By Molly Jong-Fast And here’s what the editors of Scientific America said when endorsing Joe Biden for President. In 175 years, the magazine has never endorsed a president before: The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people— because he rejects evidence and science. The most devastating example is his dishonest and inept response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which cost more than 190,000 Americans their lives by the middle of September. He has also attacked environmental protections, medical care, and the researchers and public science agencies that help this country prepare for its greatest challenges. That is why we urge you to vote for Joe Biden, who is offering fact-based plans to protect our health, our economy and the environment. These and other proposals he has put forth can set the country back on course for a safer, more prosperous and more equitable future. Its probably another two leaf art photos day: ��Here’s a local photo of the sun with the smoke from the West affecting it. ��Oliver! Yesterday we read his report from daycare. He’s doing very well and just needs to learn to eat with a spoon (he prefers to eat with his hands) and to climb up on things. I’m a bit worried about him learning to climb. ��Flashback: Zar and Alva fly in. ���A walk near our house in the early morning and a visit to the Mirepoix market. Yesterday there were roadworks closing three of the streets surrounding our house. It made driving out challenging. � 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_2020-09-18_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-191 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 2020-09-18 Title A name given to the resource Day 191 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/e0b035be4cbabd3c358229e661778bf1.pdf 9c7b418039d5560ee95816db672bdf66 PDF Text Text Day 192 by windoworks CNN Politics Particularly White Christian folks really did think they were the country. So if you take that really seriously, [as] something they believed to the core of their being, then what's becoming abundantly clear is that that is not true. But that is a foundational piece of their self-understanding. To fight tooth and nail for something that is going to actually undermine your basic identity is not too surprising. It runs just that deep. ROBERT P. JONES, FOUNDER AND CEO OF THE PUBLIC RELIGION RESEARCH INSTITUTE With the Democratic Party identifying much more unreservedly than even 10 or 20 years ago with the demands for change, and Trump so clearly stamping the GOP in opposition to all of them, the grinding trench warfare between these competing coalitions in the 2020 race probably only previews the struggle looming through the 2020s.the writer of the article isn't alone when he grimly predicts, "We're really getting ready for a very deep culture war coming." Its not a cheerful morning, although the frost predicted did not affect our garden and the sun is shining. The round patches are where Craig has planted wildflowers. �Yesterday the announcement came that the the Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, had died. In 2016 Mitch McConnell insisted that the vacancy on the Supreme Court not be filled until after the election - 10 months away. Yesterday he wasted no time insisting that the current Senate would choose the next justice to fill the vacancy. Honestly, men like McConnell and Trump are such little men with no morals or ethics, and their stable group of 40-45% of followers are such little, endlessly angry people. I can’t imagine how they all do it, day after day of anger, malice and most of all, fear. Lately when I begin to write the post, I often feel tired. I think the pandemic is more than enough for each of us to deal with and I would so like to return to a time when what the president is doing and saying does not consume America on a daily basis. Our lives are so much more than politics. This morning I watched Barack Obama talk online to the young voters. He shared his current life (showing us a sourdough starter he had made) and then explained carefully the voting process for new unregistered voters. I miss those days of his presidency, when sometimes I read about something he had pioneered or watched the annual State of the Union, but the rest of the time, just got on with my life. As one FB person wrote: I want a president I don’t have to think about every single day. Yep, me too. �Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an inspiration to us all but especially women. She spent her life fighting for others and for fairness and equality and she showed us all that anything is possible. Thank you Justice Ginsburg. What a gift you gave us. In other news, Washington Post Two Antarctic glaciers that have long kept scientists awake at night are breaking free from the restraints that have hemmed them in, increasing the threat of large-scale sea-level rise. Located along the coast of the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica, the enormous Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers already contribute around 5 percent of global sea-level rise. The survival of Thwaites has been �deemed so critical that the United States and Britain have launched a targeted multimillion-dollar research mission to the glacier. The loss of the glacier could trigger the broader collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which contains enough ice to eventually raise seas by about 10 feet. And not to depress you any further, a 10 foot rise would cover many places in the world - such as Venice which already floods annually. Here’s what Trump said about the virus: Crooked Media On Wednesday Trump tried to argue that his coronavirus response was a great success when you ignore all of the dead Americans in states that didn’t vote for him: “If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at.” What’s cool about this psychopathic dismissal of human suffering is that it’s also a lie: There have now been over 90,000 deaths in red states, a total which itself would put us behind only Brazil in the global death-toll rankings. I could say a great deal about the above because its so alarming on so many levels - but hey! What’s new? �I have mislaid the citation for this but here it is anyway: The coronavirus isn’t going away this winter. In fact, the U.S. outbreak is poised to get worse. Don’t pin your hopes on a vaccine, either. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells The Atlantic that a vaccine will not likely be in widespread distribution “until well into 2021.” What can be done in the meantime? Our staff writer James Hamblin spoke with dozens of experts over the past few months, distilling their recommendations into five actionable steps (excerpted below): �1. Accept reality. Do not waste your time and emotional energy planning around an imminent game-changing injection or pill in the coming months. 2. Plan for more shutdowns. Everyone will be better prepared if we plan for schools to close and for cities and businesses to shut back down, even while we hope they won’t have to. 3. Live like you’re contagious. This primarily means paying attention to where you are and what’s coming out of your mouth. … During the holidays, don’t plan gatherings in places where you can’t be outdoors and widely spaced. This may mean postponing or canceling long-standing traditions. 4. Build for the pandemic. This is an overdue opportunity to create and upgrade to permanently pandemic-resistant cities, businesses, schools, and homes. … Poor indoor air quality, for example, has long been a source of disease. 5. Hunt the virus. Developing fast and reliable ways to detect the coronavirus will become only more crucial during the winter cold- and- flu season. And from The Atlantic; Merely voting and counting the votes in this year’s election will be an extraordinary challenge. The country faces the worst public-health crisis in a century, a potentially severe shortage of poll workers, mail-in voting on an unprecedented scale, mounting functional problems at the U.S. Postal Service (with many alleging a plot to undermine voting by mail), and a president already dismissing mail-in voting as fraud-ridden. And all of this is taking place in one of the worst climates of partisan polarization and distrust in American history. To say that this threatens American democracy is no overstatement. To offset this, early in person voting has begun in Minnesota, Virginia, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The lines have been long as people get out to vote. Here in Michigan, the Senate passed a law which allows counting of mail in ballots to begin the day before the election, which is a good thing. Our mail in ballots should arrive this week. They’ve run out of Hurricane alphabetical names already this year and have begun using Greek letters. Hurricane Alpha is the first up. Here’s Joe Biden’s thoughts on climate change: �And although we live in the Middle, we still experience rainstorms mad high winds. Here’s the destruction left in our neighborhood from a fallen tree: �Yes its leaf art time! �Oliver is teething again. He has 8 teeth so far and now his eye teeth are rumbling. I remember teething episodes with my children. Its hard work growing teeth. ��Stirring oats at daycare. Flashback: we took everyone back to Carcassone as Zar and Alva hadn’t visited there. This time we explored inside the main castle. �������From the top: outside the entrance; 4 views from the battlements and Zoe walking through the cobbled streets. Everyone loved Carcassone. I’ll just leave it there, shall I? � 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_2020-09-19_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-192 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 2020-09-19 Title A name given to the resource Day 192 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/a9f61197c79e23440637c98d0fb98467.pdf 979683c05b7d57db3d4a429f3fdaefa8 PDF Text Text Day 193 Mandy Patinkin: by windoworks RED STATES; WE'RE LEAVING.We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Washington,M Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country that includes Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Washington D.C.We also get the vast majority of the major shipping ports. So good luck with getting goods in or out of the country affordably. We also get Costco, Starbucks and Boeing. You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Branson, Missouri.We get Intel, Apple and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Mississippi. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share.Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happier, intact families. Please be aware that California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. With the Blue States unified, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at your state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools -- Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Penn, Princeton, and Yale; and Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, and Radcliffe colleges; plus UCLA, UCB, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and Rand Paul.We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you. Additionally, 62 percent of you believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties. (See that part about �divorces. …) Oh, and you can have all the new COVID-19 cases since you're too dumb and self-centered to wear masks. Peace out. We are the people of the Blue States Ruth Bader Ginsburg. ��Here’s what Joe Biden had to say: Tonight our nation mourns an American hero, a giant of legal doctrine, and a relentless voice in the pursuit of that highest American ideal: Equal Justice Under Law. Ruth Bader Ginsburg stood for all of us. She fought for all of us. As a young attorney, she persisted through every challenge that an unequal system placed in her way to change the laws of our land and lead the legal charge to advance equal rights for women. It was my honor to preside over her confirmation hearings, and to strongly support her accession to the Supreme Court. In the decades since, she was consistently and reliably the voice that pierced to the heart of every issue, protected the constitutional rights of every American, and never failed in the fierce and unflinching defense of liberty and freedom. Her opinions, and her dissents, will continue to shape the basis of our law for future generations. May her memory be a blessing to all people who cherish our Constitution and its promise. NPR In politics, money can be a pretty good stand-in for enthusiasm. And the donations pouring in to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue since Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death indicate there is a lot of energy and money on the left. �According to the constantly-ticking tracker on ActBlue's website, in the hours from 9 p.m. ET, when the news of Ginsburg's death became widely known, to 9 a.m. ET on Saturday, nearly $31 million was donated to Democratic candidates and causes. The number keeps rising by thousands every second. The death of the iconic justice could change the ideological balance of the court and raises the already high stakes in the race for president and U.S. Senate. Traditionally, the courts have been a powerful motivator for conservative voters, especially white evangelical Christians. The question now is whether that dynamic will change in 2020 because the vacancy left by Ginsburg is so significant for those on the left. I haven’t given you the statistics for a few days. Here we are: world case total: 30.8M, deaths: 957K. US case total: 6.82M, deaths: 202K. Michigan case total: 128K, deaths: 6,970. Kent County case total: 8,572, deaths: 164. New Normal We’ve all been trying to grin and bear an ungodly amount of stress and anxiety during these trying times. But that grin is getting a little too forced. A lot of dentists say they're seeing a huge uptick in bruxism — a word that isn’t comfortable to read let alone live through. It's the formal word for excessive teeth-grinding and jaw-clenching, and it went into hyperdrive as soon as lockdown started. Hands up if you think you might be suffering with this. I thought so. �Leaf art time. How about 3 today? ���Oliver out and about with the Greats. ��Flashback: remember Craig and I went to Lastours (the 4 castle ruins on the steep hillsides)? Well we took the children back. After a great lunch, I read my book in the restaurant while they clambered all over the ruins. ������I’ll leave you with this poem which is a suitable tribute to RGB: When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety. When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes �light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity. Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken. Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us. Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened. Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance,fall away. We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignoranceof dark, cold caves. And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed. � 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_2020-09-20_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-193 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 2020-09-20 Title A name given to the resource Day 193 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/1a6c90e3eda4d18d091919c77d3b01c2.pdf 8d4ecfeee81dc18e081ca0b933ebb854 PDF Text Text Day 194 by windoworks This is one of those ‘give me a minute’ mornings. On Wednesday I will have been writing this blogpost for 28 weeks. I don’t know what I thought when I began writing it - perhaps it would be a month, 2 months, 3 months. Who knew? One of the first things I had to do was tell my daughter that I would not be coming to Australia to visit in the spring after all. It was very confronting saying: I have no way of getting to you. I had planned to visit my New Zealand family first and then go on to Australia to spend about 3 weeks or so with Zoe and Oliver and then they were coming back with me to visit here. Everyone here was so excited to catch up with Zoe again and to meet Oliver. It was hard telling families in 2 countries that I wouldn’t be able to visit. There were tears mostly from me, but we all settled down and instead continued planning our Christmas family vacation to the South Island of New Zealand. We all realized fairly quickly that this was not going to happen either, and so once again, we all set about getting refunds for deposits paid. In the middle of March GVSU closed and a state lockdown was put in place. At some point (possibly in April) Craig felt sick and so both of us were tested for the virus. Both tests were negative, and life carried on. I became adept at online shopping. We sanitized everything. We stopped sending Murphy to daycare because the staff weren’t wearing masks. I became anxious - a state which has persisted to some extent for 7 months now. I began having difficulty sleeping as did a number of friends. I cancelled dentist and doctor appointments and let my hair grow with the hope the red dye would grow out eventually. I had no memory of my true hair color as I had been dyeing it for so long. When pieces fell into my eyes, I hacked them off. It was not pretty. I had to learn to remove the shellac nail polish from my fingernails - and I have vowed to never use polish again. That was way too hard. At first I would put on smart clothes and apply makeup, but soon I let both those things drift. My youngest son who works in the fashion industry, complained that he had splashed cooking oil on every sweater he owned and now he needed to buy some new fleece tops as he was working from home for the foreseeable future. The weather changed from cold to warmer and then suddenly spring then summer was upon us. The governor relaxed some of the restrictions, and with my heart in my mouth I went to the hair salon (at 7:30am) and sat in solitary splendor as she cut my hair. The days were hotter and everything began to grow. Having painted every room in our house except his study, Craig moved on to the outside and began just with the back wall. This involved curbside pickup from our local hardware store. At the same time we made some cautious forays into grocery stores but I found this too uncomfortable and so we returned to online shopping. �We had decided (at my suggestion) to paint the top half of the house red, and once the back wall was done, Craig proceeded to paint the rest of the house. I would not let him climb up to paint the attic dormer windows, and so we paid a college house painting team to do them. And all the while, Craig was redesigning the back garden and TJ our neighbor built us a beautiful wooden fence closing off the backyard and making our chain link gates unnecessary. Like so many other items from our basement and garage clean out, the gates disappeared into some passing strangers vehicle. It was a lovely summer and apart from the onset of ragweed towards the end, I really enjoyed it. We had nightly fireflies for weeks. The hummingbirds drank the feeder dry every few days and would fly close to my face when I came out to replenish it. The seed blocks for the other birds introduced us to a pair of cardinals and a woodpecker, as well as other sparrows and finches - and one magical day, an Oriole. We returned to grocery shopping in store. I am not comfortable and I try not to be anxious, sometimes without success. I had my second virus check before an appointment with an ENT. In hindsight, I wasn’t overly impressed with him. Next up, a series of visits to an ophthalmologist to discuss the worsening cataract in my left eye. Surgery was scheduled and so was another covid test. Are 3 tests the charm? I hope so. The cataract surgery is complete for both eyes and now there is just a descending scale of daily steroid eye drops. It is now the 4th week of school for GVSU. I was so uncomfortable with Craig teaching in a hybrid fashion, that he reluctantly decided to teach online only. After a shaky start with the Blackboard system, he switched to Zoom, which is working much better. Then in the second week of term, the Ottawa county health department took precedence over GVSU and issued strict stay in place regulations for all Allendale on campus and off campus students. A lot of Craig’s time is now spent listening to and reassuring young students stuck in their dorm rooms and far from home. There are a number of students from each of his classes who have tested positive and are quarantined in a special dormitory facility. I saw in a local news story the students are running a book on when the college will be closed completely for the rest of the term. Tomorrow fall begins officially, although looking at the trees, it has already begun. There will be no candy this Halloween, and Thanksgiving and Christmas will be just the 2 of us. To compensate, we will carry out some inside jobs we have thought of. There are 43 days to the election and the world has become chaotic around me. Every day brings new disturbing developments and revelations - and anger everywhere. Who knows who will win? Who knows how long it will take to declare a winner and who knows if either side will accept that winner? The year is turning. I am hopeful that we will be able to visit our families in May next year, but I’m not certain. But I do know I will be here, every morning, writing this post and sending it into the ether. I do hope you will continue reading. �Leaf art: Oliver ��We took the children to Montsegur on a very foggy day. No of course I didn’t walk up there - I stayed in the car! They had fun though. ������I”ll leave you with these two thoughts: ��� 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_2020-09-21_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-194 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 2020-09-21 Title A name given to the resource Day 194 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/9fa23b413163c51687b423a2ae3c2286.pdf c1b3b957cc80dde0d3578dc3273de6ac PDF Text Text Day 195 by windoworks Remember I asked my children and niece to write a piece about their Covid-19 experiences? Here is the piece from my oldest son, Zar Lilley, who lives with his wife in Auckland New Zealand. He is a journalist and his piece sets a high bar. The view from faraway: New Zealand: On March 23 Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, addressed the public in a live broadcast, announcing the most significant restrictions in the country’s modern history in response to the growing coronavirus pandemic. New Zealand would move to Covid Alert Level 3 - a lockdown - that day, and rise to Level 4, the most stringent of restrictions, within 48 hours, she said. Almost all businesses would close, schools would empty, and people would go home. Travel would cease. “If community transmission takes off in New Zealand the number of cases will double every five days. If that happens unchecked, our health system will be inundated, and thousands of New Zealanders will die,” Ardern said. �Auckland’s Southern Motorway, which usually carries 200,000 vehicles a day, was mostly deserted during the lockdown. Photo: Zar Lilley “I say to all New Zealanders: The Government will do all it can to protect you. Now I’m asking you to do everything you can to protect all of us. Kiwis - go home.” The restrictions would eventually remain in place for five weeks. In the office, we looked at each other, and at the end of our shifts, gathered the things we’d need to work from home. Within days, the roads emptied, planes were grounded, and a quietness descended over the cities as the restrictions took effect. It was surprising how quickly it all happened. �Broadway, in Auckland’s Newmarket shopping district. Deserted during the lockdown, it’s usually clogged with cars, buses, cyclists and pedestrians. Photo: Zar Lilley. The lockdown meant no travelling by car for anything other than essential trips - buying food from supermarkets (grocery stores), or going to the doctor. Exercise was restricted to the area around where you lived. A new term was coined - bubbles. “Stay in your bubble” meant isolating to only interact with the people in your house. People flouting the restrictions risked arrest. It was a warm and sunny autumn, and within days, people started walking - and then cycling on the empty roads. Soon families were out on bikes, riding through the suburb we live in. For us, life at home settled pretty quickly into a rhythm, soon taken up with daily walks, Zoom and FaceTime calls with friends and family, and home cooking. I worked from home. Even the air got better, with climate science agency NIWA reporting Auckland’s airborne pollution had reduced by 90 per cent in the absence of its fleet of just over 1 million cars, trucks and buses. ��During the lockdown many people took part in the Bear Hunt. This guy had a prime seat to watch the world go by. Photo: Zar Lilley Trips to the supermarket were highly organised affairs where I would usually have to line up, two metres from the person in front and behind, and wait to be allowed to enter the store. Only a certain number of people could be in the store at any one time. A lot of people wore masks. Checkout operators wore masks and stood behind plastic screens. Hand sanitiser was everywhere. I can’t say the lockdown was a hard time for us - we enjoyed the time together and settling into home life. However we did worry about how it would affect our jobs - luckily we were both employed in essential industries. Huge stimulus packages were released by the Government - including subsidies to businesses to keep staff on - nonetheless tens of thousands of people in hard-hit industries like tourism and education did lose their jobs, or had their hours cut, or faced salary reductions. According to Statistics NZ, in the June quarter the economy slumped by 12.2 per cent - the largest recorded fall in the country’s history. Homebound, people started baking, and doing long-put off cleaning and fix-it jobs. Home schooling was helped by the rollout of tablets to kids, with most schools moving to online learning. A TV channel was started to help kids’ education. During this, all the numbers of cases announced by the Government and Ministry of Health in daily press conferences, steadily rose. And then, just as steadily as they had increased, after a few weeks, they started to fall. �Deserted Newmarket. Photo: Zar Lilley On April 20, Ardern again addressed the country. New Zealand would move back to Alert Level 3 - an incremental step loosening the number of businesses that could open for contactless trading, and the partial re-opening of schools to the children of workers from essential sectors, such as healthcare and police. Bubbles would be relaxed somewhat, so one or two other family members could gather together. Grandparents could see their grandchildren. The biggest thing on most people’s minds, however, was the resumption of take-out food (a fast foodloving nation, McDonalds said it had sold out of food in many areas of New Zealand ahead of the lockdown as people panic bought burgers). “Orders for delivery company Delivereasy were coming in even before it was open and by mid-morning, it was averaging an order every 8 seconds,” broadcaster RNZ reported. �Socially distanced coffee pickup. Customers phone in their orders and then pay via contactless credit card. Photo: Zar Lilley Having the option of ordering food after weeks of having to cook it yourself was an excellent treat. We definitely indulged, and after all, it was helping the local businesses so why not? We also started to order a lot of things online. The local wine store had a click and collect set up where you could place an order on their website, then after receiving a text message, walk up the road to the �store, wave through the locked doors and then stand behind a mark on the pavement. The store worker would then open the door and leave your package, wave, and then close the door again. Wine sorted! As well as the re-opening of businesses to deliveries, and in some cases, click and collect, the restrictions on how far people could go to exercise were also somewhat relaxed. We walked further, heading to places that would’ve previously been out of bounds. Travel, however, remained largely closed off: only essential workers could fly. Then on Monday May 11, the prime minister again addressed the country, announcing a staggered move down to Level 2 would take place from 11.59pm on Wednesday night. This meant most of the restrictions that people had lived with under Level 3 would be removed, but social distancing requirements would remain. Restaurants, cafes, gyms, playgrounds and other public places would be able to re-open, however those using them would be restricted to groups of 10. Restaurants came up with some imaginative ways to ensure social distancing. This one used mannequins at tables to separate groups of ten patrons. Photo: Zar Lilley �Schools would re-open from the following Monday, while bars would have to wait until the following Thursday. Travel to other parts of the country would resume. It was like life kicked back into gear. Traffic quickly returned to the highways and motorways, people started going out to bars, restaurants, and shopping malls. We resumed going out to restaurants, which meant scanning in with the newly-released Covid tracer app on your phone - this recorded visits with dates and times, and could message you if you were in close proximity to someone who later tested positive for Covid-19 - putting your details in their register, and sitting at spaced out tables. Bottles of hand sanitiser were everywhere. Case numbers, meanwhile, dropped to zero, and after some days of this, on June 8, Ardern again addressed the country to announce a move to Level 1 from 11.59pm that night. All restrictions would be removed. “We are confident we have eliminated the transmission of the virus here in New Zealand for now, but elimination is not a point in time, it is a sustained effort,” Ardern said. “The world will remain in the grip of a global pandemic for some time to come and we will see cases here again, which we must remain prepared for.” Prime Minister Ardern announced in June that all restrictions would end. (Screenshot, 1 News) In the wake of the lockdown, things returned to normal surprisingly quickly. Malls filled, people went to restaurants, holidays were booked - and traffic jams returned. �While a percentage of returning travelers going through the country’s isolation system did test positive, New Zealand remained without any Covid cases in the community for slightly over 100 days. Four cases were announced on Tuesday 11 August, all within the same family. As a result, Auckland was moved back to Level 3 lockdown restrictions for just over two and a half weeks, and the border to the city was closed. The rest of the country moved to Level 2 - social distancing. Auckland moved out of lockdown to a slightly elevated Level “2.5” - social distancing but tighter restrictions on group numbers - on Sunday August 30. It will move to “proper” Level 2 at 11.59pm this Wednesday. All restrictions for the rest of the country were lifted at 11.59pm on Monday night. **************************************************************** Author’s note: Zar did not mention the substantial fines and/or jail for lockdown offenders - and some were enforced. Also, the returning travelers are New Zealanders, no tourists will be allowed into New Zealand until possibly mid 2021 and trans Tasman travel (across the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand) may resume in March or April. I did look up quarantine regulations here in the US. The CDC guidelines are scanty at best, and it seems to be a state mandated thing. That means that there are no formal quarantine regulations as far as I can see. Leaf art �And Oliver, of course. �We’re always walking now. �Flashback: we went back to Roquefixade with the children. �����This last photo is of the town of Roquefixade. You can see the steep climb up to the castle ruins. The surrounding countryside is so beautiful. And just to remind you: �42 days. Get ready. � 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_2020-09-22_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-195 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 2020-09-22 Title A name given to the resource Day 195 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/84988661c4a1f55cf08b73025cf7cf56.pdf 2c23c7b751ece213c774904720f457fe PDF Text Text Day 196 by windoworks Yeah, baby! In other disturbing news - are we disturbed yet? Crooked Media The official U.S.coronavirus death toll has soared past 200,000, President Trump continues to aggressively not give a shit, and in an enigma that historians will puzzle over for centuries to come, this is still shaping up to be a close election. �• The confirmed number of Americans lost to the virus is now equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 67 days, and the true number is much higher than that. The current death toll—by far the highest in the world—was once seen as an unimaginable worst-case scenario, and some experts now warn that it could nearly double by the end of 2020. While New Zealand celebrates bringing its second outbreak under control, the U.S. continues to report more than 750 deaths per day. • Instead of leading a traumatized nation in grieving those victims, Donald Trump flatly dismissed them at his latest superspreader campaign event in Ohio on Monday night. “It affects virtually nobody,” said the president to a packed crowd making no attempt at social distancing. “It’s an amazing thing.” Trump meant to make the point that people under 18 are in no danger from coronavirus, which is itself a horrendous lie: Hundreds of children have been hospitalized, and dozens have died. As Trump himself told Bob Woodward on tape in March, “Now it's turning out it's not just old people, Bob…young people, too, plenty of young people.” • Over the past week the U.S. has seen an average of 41,812 new cases per day, a seven percent increase over just two weeks ago. Experts have repeatedly warned that the combination of cold weather forcing more activities into poorly-ventilated indoor spaces, flu season straining health care systems, and Republican unwillingness to promote masks and social distancing will set us up for a disastrous fall and winter. There are a lot of things the Trump administration should be doing about our high daily baseline, and none of them are encouraging Americans to let their guard down. • Each dizzying coronavirus milestone is a reminder of the new normal we’ve been asked to accept, and of the collective mourning we’ve been denied—because the crisis isn’t over, because the president is a psychopath, because it would require a national reckoning. We can be sad about that, or we can channel that sadness into rage, and then action. 41 days. 41 days. 41 days. 41 days. �These are the flags set out on the lawn at the Capitol - there are 200,000 of them. Each one represents an American who died from the coronavirus. There are so many other stories, day after day, like the huge amount of CARES money given to the Pentagon to buy PPE etc and they chose to spend it on uniforms and jet engines, because what else do we need in a pandemic? Yesterday I watched a Roundtable with Governor Whitmer, Dr Joneigh Khaldun (Michigan Chief Medical Officer) and Mark Tottenham, Chief Legal Counsel to the governor. They asked each other questions and it was illuminating hearing about the systems in place and how soon they knew and understood what was coming. Dr J said they watched and waited for the first human to human transmission and then she put testing labs in place etc. Governor Whitmer described her close relationship with other governors, especially J.B. Pritzker D - Illinois and Mike DeWine R - Ohio. The governors have had to work together because Trump won’t give any (or only meager) federal assistance. The FDA is assuring everyone that any vaccine will not be green lighted until it is thoroughly tested and declared safe - and that certainly won’t be before November 3. Airlines will insist on a test for each passenger before overseas flights. Early voting participants in Virginia had to run the gamut of Trump supporters, chanting and threatening. This morning I went early to get my haircut and my stylist and I lamented the state of our country. On the way to the salon (first time I’ve driven the car since my eye surgery), the sun was coming up behind me - blood red. A reminder of the dreadful fires in the west. Each day’s revelations and developments are so unbelievable that we are becoming immune to shock. Instead I am exhausted. Here’s a meme from my daughter: ��I wonder if this will pull this country apart? The divisions are so deep and so entrenched, I wonder what will happen after the election is over? Perhaps it is best to have a daily routine, take time to enjoy the small things and try to breathe. In the ‘its all very well to point this out to us now’ category: Washington Post The Founders recognized that checks and balances were only as good as the people who used them. “As there is a degree of depravity in mankind,” James Madison wrote in Federalist 55, “so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form.” The author of the Constitution further argued that “were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be, that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self-government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.” So, leaf art: ��And Oliver. ��Flashback: we took the children to Chateau Pennautier, a winery -a chateau and a winery going back 4 centuries. I think the original owner was the Treasurer to the States of Languedoc. �������Wandering around the town of Pennautier and the Chateau before the winery visit. The tour with the owner and head sommelier. Next a comprehensive lesson in wine tasting which we all enjoyed. Last a fabulous lunch and gift shop peruse before driving home. A wonderful day. Here’s an update from Allsides: �So now you know. Tomorrow then. and keep breathing. � 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_2020-09-23_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-196 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 2020-09-23 Title A name given to the resource Day 196 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/aec387d5d0943548fc475d87f8332667.pdf 67076e93ad5f940678a56ed84a6b20c8 PDF Text Text Day 197 by windoworks In the third of the series, this morning I offer my daughter Zoe’s contribution in: The View from Far Away: Zoe and her son Oliver live in the inner west neighborhood of Balmain in Sydney, Australia. When I thought about the challenges of having a baby on my own, I must admit, I did not factor in a global pandemic… �The first inkling we had here in Australia that things were getting serious was, I think, when news broke that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson had tested positive for COVID-19, up in Queensland, while they were here for Tom to take part in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis film. Honestly, I think if that hadn't happened, it would have taken us all longer to get serious about social distancing restrictions, etc, and our numbers might have been a lot worse. I manage a team of 5 people in my job, but back in March it was 7, and the team flagged early on that they were uneasy about taking public transport into the office and asked if they could work from home. We were seen as a bit of a test case for the district (I work for a district area of a state government department). So from 18 March, we started working from home, and that will continue for us for the foreseeable future. After the numbers in New South Wales started to escalate (we were definitely the "worst" Oz state early on, especially when a whole bunch of passengers were let off a cruise ship in the city, which turned out to be rampant with COVID - they're still fighting over who is officially responsible for that), I started to wonder about the impact this might have on me. The idea of being essentially isolated with just Ollie for company, as delightful as a (then) 8 month old baby is, was a little terrifying to my mental health. So I asked my aunt and uncle if I could move in with them temporarily, and as it turns out, they had been discussing exactly that. Ollie and I went to stay with them on the north shore for the month of April, where I got through my 3 days a week of work hours over the 5 day week, while also wrangling a baby. It was intense. I was lucky that my aunt was also working from home, so I had some wrangle assistance! Thinking back, our tightest restrictions were around only meeting one other person outside for exercise, as well as not having more than two visitors to our homes. My mothers group friends and I decided immediately that they couldn't possibly count the babies in this number. I do remember one time, right before I had moved to the north shore, when I was walking with my friend and our babies in their prams, and we ran into another mum and baby, so we stopped to covertly talk behind the local primary school, and felt very illegal! As our numbers started to decline, and anxiety eased a bit, I decided it was time to move home and put Ollie back into daycare, which had never closed, but was being paid only a fraction of their usual income by the government and struggling through. I was really concerned they would collapse as a business, which would be a nightmare for me when things went back to "normal", because daycare spots are very hard to find in Sydney. Luckily they made it through! These days we can travel but we still have cases here in NSW. The numbers are low, random, and for the most part, people in hotel quarantine. I'm watching Melbourne, Victoria with interest, to see when their extremely tough restrictions finally get lifted, so that Uncle Asher can come back for a visit. He did manage to make it here for 9 days right before the second wave in Victoria in July. �Of course, I'm also watching the USA, for many reasons (politics nerd over here), but mainly to see when Mum and Dad can feel safe enough to get on a plane with their Australian passports to come home and see Ollie again - very hopeful that will be next year Authors note: Craig and I have both American passports and Australian passports as we hold dual citizenship. I'm also (mostly) remembering to be kind to myself. None of our brains are wired for this unending state of anxiety and uncertainty. It's hard and exhausting. It's good to talk to your family and friends, and have a laugh whenever possible… or a wine! (Or both). So, 40 days and the crazy just keeps ramping up. Yesterday no one was indicted for the shooting (murder) of Breonna Taylor - there’s no point asking: how can this be? There were protests and demonstrations and I share this powerful photograph of the Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Payne. I have worked closely with Chief Payne in the past and this photo is so indicative of his true heart. �Meanwhile (40 days) Trump has thrown all caution to the winds: And also: The Atlantic: This election could be the one that breaks America, Barton Gellman warns in our November cover story. The conversation that follows has been edited and condensed. Caroline Mimbs Nyce: So what happens if President Trump refuses to concede the election? Barton Gellman: I don’t think it’s a question of “if.” Unless Trump scores a legitimate win in the Electoral College, everything we know about him says he will refuse to accept defeat and use every tool at his disposal to undo the result.Refusing to concede is a remarkably powerful thing. Concessions are how elections end, full stop.Trump will have plenty of options to keep the outcome in doubt—in court, on the streets, in the Electoral College, and in Congress. The subtext of his efforts will be that “nobody knows” who won, and that he is stepping in to restore stability. Caroline: You argue that the president could use his powers to muddle the results, leaving no clear procedural winner. How so? Bart: Unlike baseball, elections have no umpire—no singular authority with the power to rule decisively on the results. The most significant risk is that Trump will ask Republican allies in battleground states to appoint Trump electors regardless of the outcome. We’re accustomed to choosing electors by popular vote, but the Supreme Court has said a state legislature may take back that power from the people and name any electors it likes. According to a legal adviser to Trump and three top Republican leaders in Pennsylvania, they are already discussing contingency plans to set aside the voting results—by claiming the vote count is rigged. Republicans control the House and Senate in all six of the most closely contested swing states. Caroline: There are many frightening details in your piece. Is there one that keeps you up at night? Bart: What frightens me is that Trump has the power, with only modest help from GOP elected officials, to throw the outcome into doubt and to keep it unresolved almost indefinitely. And if he throws the decision to Congress, which he can do almost at will, the law is a labyrinth full of dead ends when it comes to how that’s resolved. Experts tell me that the Electoral Count Act is so garbled and full of logic bombs that it can easily lead to deadlock. Caroline: What’s your best advice to Americans going into November? Bart: First and foremost, stop thinking about this election in conventional terms. Expect an extraconstitutional challenge, because it is very probably coming.Take agency, because an election can’t be stolen without some kind of acquiescence from the people at large. So don’t acquiesce.Vote. Vote early if your state allows. Vote in person if you can tolerate the risk, because late-counted mail votes will be the heart of the postelection contest. Phew! That was long - but I felt it should be included. �In Finland: AP news HELSINKI (AP) — Finland has deployed coronavirus-sniffing dogs at the Nordic country’s main international airport in a four-month trial of an alternative testing method that could become a costfriendly and quick way to identify infected travelers. Four dogs of different breeds trained by Finland’s Smell Detection Association started working Wednesday at the Helsinki Airport as part of the government-financed trial. “It’s a very promising method. Dogs are very good at sniffing,” Anna Hielm-Bjorkman, a University of Helsinki professor of equine and small animal medicine, said. Many of us (me included) have hit that 6 month wall. Here’s some tips: it is normal to hit the wall at 6 months especially in a pandemic. We all want to get away or make it stop. That’s normal, but this is our new adaptation phase. We’ve relearned how to shop online, and attend zoom meetings etc. But now �winter is approaching with shorter days and cold weather. Don’t try to ram your head through the wall ride it out. It will break naturally in about 4-6 weeks. Try to remain positive and accepting. Leaf art (I’ve still got more) Oliver ��Flashback: Toulouse. We all went to Toulouse for lunch and a visit to the Christmas market on Christmas Eve day. Later we drove to the airport to pick up the last visitor - Zoe’s friend Leah Dove. �����As well as the huge number of booths in the main square outside, the Toulouse food markets are all inside and on Christmas Eve they were packed! I had my feet trodden on many times - people were ruthless! This is the time to be slow, Lie low to the wall Until the bitter weather passes. Try, as best you can, not to let The wire brush of doubt Scrape from your heart All sense of yourself And your hesitant light. If you remain generous, Time will come good; And you will find your feet Again on fresh pastures of promise, �Where the air will be kind And blushed with beginning. John O’Donohue, Irish poet and philosopher 40 days. Breathe. � 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_2020-09-24_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-197 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 2020-09-24 Title A name given to the resource Day 197 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/a4f75d58f1d69487014dd368527d440c.pdf ffc82b1bc4c853b6333b96e42864531f PDF Text Text Day 198 by windoworks Good morning. Today I bring you the covid tale from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia which is where Asher, my youngest son lives. The View from Far Away: At first, Covid-19 seemed like a faraway problem. In January, I recall sitting in meetings at work discussing the status of upcoming ranges as well as shipping delays, all due to the impact in China (where most of our manufacturers operate out of). We all watched the story unfold in Wuhan and slowly impact more of the country, but it honestly never crossed our minds that we would eventually have our entire way of life turned on its head by this very same virus. It became more of a reality in late February, after some members of our design team returned from Milan. Having fallen ill after a few days back in the office, they were then required to self-isolate at home for 14 days. I remember panicking, as I had been in direct contact with a few of them and wondered whether they actually had the Coronavirus (they didn't). My last weekend of pure freedom - the first weekend of March - was spent at a music festival with 25 friends. By this point the virus had entered the country and was no longer an abstract threat. I recall feeling slightly nervous as the event had 6,000 attendees, but we had the time of our lives! It also turned out to be the last time I saw most of my friends in person (I didn't even know what Zoom was at this point). Returning to work the following week, I was plunged into Covid-19 crisis management planning. We looked at scenario planning, payment principles if we were required to stand our teams down, hygiene and cleanliness measures, customer responses, press statements, and many other actions - all in preparation for what we still thought wasn't inevitable. Surelywe'll keep things under control in this country?! All the same - and to manage the growing unease among our retail team members - we set up online information hubs, created statements from the CEO, and offered guidance to our leadership teams on how to quickly shut down stores should someone be exposed to the virus. Just in case. Just in case… Two weeks later I hopped in my car and drove to work, only to find that the parking lot was blocked, police were on hand, and that the office had been closed. Apparently someone had tested positive to the virus, and as a result the office had to be forensically cleaned. We'd be back in a few days. Not the case, because forensic cleans are very expensive! The decision was made to transition to working from home (WFH). Turns out that Tuesday 24th March was the first day of my new WFH life, and 26 weeks later I am still here. We probably all have a very similar experience of our initial lockdown. Cooking up a storm, baking bread, making pasta, going on long walks, spending time catching up with friends and family, enjoying a more relaxed pace of life, probably drinking a bit too much but hey - it did feel like a bit of a holiday! In �particular, I loved getting the chance to FaceTime Zoe and Oliver in the evenings - something I never was able to do when I worked at the office, as the best time to see them was right when I was driving home. Maybe this lockdown wouldn’t be too hard after all! Before long, I fell victim to the fallout from shutting down the economy. This part wasn't as great. As the virus took hold, we made the decision to close our stores to protect our team members, and with our primary revenue stream cut off, the business had to make some tough decisions to survive. So along with our store teams, many office employees got stood down without pay. For me this lasted 5 weeks and was a pretty scary time. Not because I didn't have the funding to look after myself, but because I genuinely didn't know whether my company would survive. I remember the day my boss called the team to let us know we were being brought back (in preparation to re-open our stores) - part time, but better than nothing. I buzzed her afterwards to thank her, and she cried to me on the phone. She felt an overwhelming responsibility for our welfare and thought that she hadn't achieved enough by only getting us back part time. I assured her that it was okay. Even if she had only brought us back 1 day per week, we would have been grateful! It is funny how an experience like that changes your expectations on what gainful employment means to you. So, back to it again. Working long hours at home preparing our stores for re-opening, including implementing extreme safety precautions to ensure our teams remained as safe as possible. And all through the months since re-opening, I'm proud to say that we have indeed created a very safe environment - even when our team have been exposed to a positive case, it has never been passed on. I think you all know the next part of the story, having read Mum's blog. Due to significant mismanagement of the hotel quarantine program, plus a large outbreak in the outer suburbs of Melbourne as a result of large family gatherings (in direct breach of the eased restrictions), Melbourne went back into total- and indeed a far more strict - lockdown on Wednesday 8th July. We've been in that lockdown ever since. We have a curfew, movements are restricted to within a 5km radius of our house, only one person from each household can exercise outside (for 1 hour) at a time. The daily case counts were getting very high, and it was a scary time. The hardest part about being back in lockdown is having our small taste of freedom cut short. To have that taken away as a result of some careless behavior by some selfish people was, frankly, devastating. We had also entered winter (quite cold, dark and gloomy in Melbourne) and this probably influenced my mood. Everything we had loved about the first lockdown had lost its appeal – cooking, baking, e-learning, and especially Zooms. People withdrew. I started checking on friends: ‘are you ok?’, as I knew pretty much all of them were not. Nobody was thriving. Many had lost jobs, others had lost family members (unrelated to Covid-19) and due to tough restrictions could not attend funerals. �But bit by bit we became resilient, re-energised, and eventually remembered why we love this amazing city so much. The Paris of the south. Time and time again voted the world’s most liveable city. Sure, the city is pretty - and the cafes, bars, restaurants, galleries, museums, and live music venues are incredible. But when that is all stripped away, we came to see that the soul of the place could not be broken. We reconnected again, and some amazing things started happening. Friends organised online music events. We held online trivia nights. We set up weekly ‘walk and talks’ where we’d all get on the phone, pour ourselves a drink, and wander the streets in our suburbs having a silly old time together. We came back to Zoom – celebrating milestone birthdays and joining in on weekly dinners where someone chose what everyone else was making. We adapted. Yes, we are living in the world’s longest lockdown. The government has kept us at home for the better part of 6 months. Yes, it is hard. In fact, it is the hardest thing I have ever done. But it has also changed me for the better. I’m far more comfortable to connect with people on a deeper level. It is no longer taboo to tell someone how you’re really doing. I know more about myself now than I did only 6 months ago. I can survive hardship; I am more resilient than I thought. And I have developed some pretty mean cooking skills! Thankfully, our cases are dropping and now the end is in sight. And when I finally get to leave my house and catch up with friends and family face to face, I will never ever (ever) take that for granted again. �Asher joins Oliver’s birthday party via FaceTime. �I am humbled by my children’s experiences and the way in which they all found such strength to cope. I have learned more about each child through their writings. Washington Post House Democrats unveil a proposal to “prevent future presidential abuses.” “The package, which its architects have informally referred to as ‘post-Trump reforms,’ includes measures to restrain the president’s power to grant pardons and declare national emergencies, to prevent federal officials from enriching themselves and to accelerate the process of enforcing congressional subpoenas in �court. It also includes provisions to protect inspectors general and whistleblowers, increase penalties for officials who subvert congressional appropriations or engage in overt political activity and safeguard against foreign election interference,” Karoun Demirjian reports. “Taken together, the measures represent the Democrats’ attempt to correct what they have identified as systematic deficiencies during the course of Trump’s tenure and impeachment, in the style of changes Congress adopted after Richard Nixon left office. Unlike the post-Watergate reforms, however, which took years to enact, today’s House Democrats have collected their proposed changes under one bill reflecting several measures that have been percolating piecemeal through the House.” I am encouraged by this and impressed by its rapid progress. So what else? Crooked Media: On Wednesday, President Trump not only declined to commit to stepping aside peacefully if he loses, he announced his desire to throw out the absentee ballots that might add up to his loss: “Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful—there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation.” Today White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany effectively said the same thing: “The president will accept the results of a free and fair election”—which, in Trump’s Plinko board of a mind, means an election that he wins, and nothing else. Good grief! Vote! And: Washington Post “Over 3½ years in office, he has presided over a sweeping U.S. government retreat from the front lines of civil rights, endangering decades of progress against voter suppression, housing discrimination and police misconduct. His immigration policies hark back to quota systems of the 1920s that were influenced by the junk science of eugenics, and have involved enforcement practices — including the separation of small children from their families — that seemed designed to maximize trauma on Hispanic migrants. … After rolling back regulations designed to encourage affordable housing for minorities, Trump declared himself the champion of the ‘Suburban Lifestyle Dream.’ He ordered aides to revamp racial sensitivity training at federal agencies so that it no longer refers to ‘White privilege.’ … And officials said Trump regretted reducing prison sentences when it didn’t produce a spike in Black voter support. … Meanwhile, in other places: France is set to raise the coronavirus alert level in Paris and other top cities to "scarlet", the highest level, as part of efforts to stem a continuing rise in the daily number of infections, a government source told AFP. Health Minister Olivier Véran will announce new measures later on Wednesday as he holds his weekly press conference to chart the outbreak's progression, the source said. France has reported a surge in daily cases, prompting officials to urge people to limit social gatherings and wear masks in public at all times. �In the larger Paris Ile-de-France area, the incidence rate of infection has risen to 204 per 100,000 inhabitants, higher than in other hard-hit cities such as Lyon and Marseille, which have already tightened measures to curb virus transmission. The capital had a positive coronavirus test rate of 9.9 percent last week, compared to a national rate of 6.1 percent Tuesday. On Tuesday, Lyon became the latest city to limit attendance at major outdoor events including festivals to 1,000 people and prohibit the sale and consumption of alcohol outdoors from 8pm. The new rules for Lyon, France's third largest city, followed similar measures in Marseille, Bordeaux and Nice as the coronavirus resurges across the country and the testing system buckles under heavy demand. Winter is on the horizon and with it comes the seasonal flu. Some people ( not scientists) keep insisting that Covid is just like the flu and the flu kills more people. Here’s some facts in an easy to read format: ��And just in case you wondered: Washington Post Debbie Birx is questioning how much longer she can remain in the White House. “Birx has confided to aides and friends that she has become so unhappy with what she sees as her diminished role as coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force that she is not certain how much longer she can serve in her position,” CNN reports. “Birx has told people around her that she is ‘distressed’ with the direction of the task force, describing the situation inside the nation's response to the coronavirus as nightmarish. According to people familiar with her thinking, Birx views Dr. Scott Atlas, a recent addition to the task force, as an unhealthy influence on Trump's thinking when it comes to the virus.” So it seems like we have a perfect storm. Now just a word of advice: if you are intending to vote in person at a polling place, please wear clothes without slogans and no buttons supporting the candidate. You will be turned away and if you’ve been waiting in lines for hours, that would be terrible. No Ruth Bader Ginsburg buttons or slogans either. But enjoy this instead: �And here’s one man’s solution to having his Biden signs stolen: �Leaf art: �Followed by Oliver, of course. ��Flashback: finally it was Christmas Day. ����From the top: all together on Christmas Day; me roasting the vegetables in goose fat (I LOVED that stove); Alva set the table and the goose. The stuffing was to die for. I shouldn’t have been surprised, the number of times the butcher kissed his fingers about it should have told me. 39 days. Vote. Breathe. Vote. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-09-25_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-198 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 2020-09-25 Title A name given to the resource Day 198 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/631f99e7bdaeac752510637905a2ab01.pdf fe3c58ca2acca584943314dbdb622fc0 PDF Text Text Day 199: Saturday September 26 by windoworks I have begun to ask extended family and friends if they would like to write a piece for me. This morning’s View from Far Away comes from my friend Merrilyn. We have known each other since our children were babies - me with Zoe and Merrilyn with Scott. After out Nursing Mothers Association days were over (and our children all at school), Merrilyn and I remained in our group of NMAA friends. We called ourselves the Milky Bar Mums and we met for lunch about once a month. There were 4 of us, but over the years, one drifted away and one died of breast cancer, and Merrilyn met and married her second husband and moved far away to the other side of Australia. With Oliver’s birth, we reconnected and caught up in Sydney. We have been emailing regularly ever since. Here is Merrilyn’s piece: My COVID Life 2020 I’ll begin with the statistics in Western Australia and it will perhaps give an indication as to why we are so fortunate living in Perth, known as the most isolated capital city in the world. In our State there have been 668 confirmed cases, 9 deaths and 650 recovered. At present there are some crew members from a bulk iron ore vessel who tested positive for COVID this week. They are now isolated in a hotel in Port Headland whilst their ship is moored off the coast. The Premier of our State refuses to open the borders to other States whilst there is any concern about transmission, but other than that there are few restrictions here. Presently our concert halls, theatres and sports stadiums are allowed 50% capacity and these restrictions will ease in a few weeks time. There is no indication when we will be able to fly freely interstate, we are told it is contingent on locally acquired infection rates in the Eastern States. Naturally we miss visiting our children and their families who live in the Eastern States but thanks to modern technology we see them all regularly on Facetime calls. �Initially when the various restrictions were put in place I felt quite anxious and crazy little things like availability of toilet paper and tissues and shopping at specific times and seeing all the shops closed but for essentials, bothered me. The constant sense of gloom and doom and impending disaster was overwhelming at times and the media were so very negative. Whenever I could, I latched on to good news stories – that wonderful 99 year old Tom Moore who by walking laps around his garden in England raised an extraordinary amount of money for the NHS, was one – and John Krasinski’s Some Good News gave me a weekly dose of good news. In the early days I couldn’t meet up with friends but as the restrictions eased I was able to catch up with them in a park nearby. We all sat with our chairs the regulated distance apart and brought our own food and drink. It was so good to see friends in person. I even organised my sewing group day in the park. Fortunately for us it was April and the weather was still good enough to be outside. I had season tickets to the West Australian Ballet here in Perth and also a performance by the Australian Ballet in Melbourne. Of course none of these performances were able to go ahead however, I have very much enjoyed the Australian Ballet’s streaming programme of famous ballets in the comfort of my own lounge room. Not quite the same as sitting in a theatre, but most enjoyable just the same. At this time I noticed during my walks around our neighbourhood that teddy bears were appearing in front gardens. With my grandchildren in mind I created a story book which I called Bear Hunt, featuring my photos. As soon as the first rains came and the children returned to school, a lot of the bears disappeared. So this brief moment in history has been captured in my book. I put in a submission to the WA State Library for my book to be included in their COVID-19 Collection and to my surprise and delight the State Library asked for 2 copies. I realised there may be others interested in my book and began a marketing campaign. I have mainly targeted children’s day care centres and primary schools and to date have sold over 180 copies of the book in my local area. I have been told by a couple of primary schools that my book is going in their COVID-19 2020 time capsule to be buried for upwards of 50 years! This journey with Bear Hunt has given me so much joy. I have met the most interesting people all of whom have smiled when they’ve seen the book. And still it goes on. Healthwise I cannot remember a winter when I haven’t had a cold or the flu, but this past winter I haven’t had so much as a sniffle – must be all that hand-washing and social distancing. I feel so healthy and positive. Mentally I have made a few decisions about what is important in my life and who and what brings me happiness. A friend and I have begun to volunteer at a Food Bank once a fortnight and we have met really interesting people whilst doing extraordinarily menial tasks. We are both shattered at the end of our day, but truly satisfied. So my COVID-19 life this year has been very different to others. We know how fortunate we are to live in Perth and our lives at this time are not that different from pre-COVID days. �What I didn’t tell you was that Merrilyn ran a ballet school for children and one year preschool Asher featured as Benjamin Bunny in her end of year ballet concert. Hence her great love and support of ballet. Everyone keeps asking: when will the pandemic be over? A group of scientists collaborated on when they thought it might ease. Here’s their predictions: Politico The microscopic bundles of RNA, wrapped in spiky proteins, latch on to human cells, hijack them, use them as factories to replicate, and then leave them for dead. It’s a biological blitzkrieg—an invasion so swift and unexpected that the germs are free to jump from host to host with little interference. Fast forward to the future. Now, when the prickly enemies invade the lungs, they slip past the human cells, unable to take hold. They’re marked for destruction, soon to be surrounded and eliminated. Though some escape through the airways, they confront the same defenses in their next target—if, that is, they can get anywhere near the human cells. There are so few people left to infect that the germs have nowhere to replicate, nowhere to survive. This is the end of the coronavirus pandemic. And this is how it could happen in the United States: By November 2021, most Americans have received two doses of a vaccine that, while not gloriously effective, fights the disease in more cases than not. Meanwhile, Americans continue to wear masks and avoid large gatherings, and the Covid-19 numbers drop steadily after a series of surges earlier in the year. Eventually, as more and more Americans develop immunity through exposure and vaccination, and as treatments become more effective, Covid-19 recedes into the swarm of ordinary illnesses Americans get every winter. It will take two things to bring this virus under control: hygienic measures and a vaccine. And you can’t have one without the other. There’s a lot of fog left in the Covid-19 crystal ball, but most accept several likelihoods: At least one effective vaccine—hopefully several—will be approved in the U.S. by early next year. Producing and distributing a vaccine will take months, with the average American not receiving their dose (or doses) until at least mid- or late 2021. And while widespread inoculation will play a large role in bringing life back to normal, getting the shot will not be your cue to take off your mask and run free into a crowded bar. The end of the pandemic will be an evolution, not a revolution, the vaccine just another powerful tool in that process. Experts’ estimates of the timeline vary, but there seems to be some agreement that the virus could be in decline and under control by the second half of 2021, and that society could see pre-Covid “normal” within two years. The precise timing, of course, is uncertain—an elusive future that rests on a series of known unknowns, things like how many people continue to wear masks and social distance and whether rapid Covid-19 tests become widely available and properly deployed. Much will depend on how effective the vaccines are, how many people refuse to get inoculated and how many people forget to get their second dose if the vaccine requires two (yes, that is a significant concern). And then there’s what epidemiologist Michael �Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, calls “the trillion-dollar word of the day with this disease”: immunity. How long, on average, will immunity from natural infection and from the vaccine last? The pandemic is far from over. It’s not even in decline. Cases of Covid-19 are on the rise in more than 19 states, and in just one day this week, the U.S. saw more than 40,000 new cases and more than 1,000 deaths. Experts don’t expect those numbers to improve much as people move indoors for the fall and winter. Little by little there’s going to be fewer people wanting to sit outside, more people sitting inside. And then people are going to say, ‘Well, you know, I was at dinner two nights ago and I was fine. I can go to this gathering of 30 people.’ Then ‘I can go to the gathering of 100 people.’ And it will probably be just kind of a slow … change of opinion about what the risks are. Large portions of American society will decide not to follow the inexorable track back to “normal.” Perhaps masks will become the norm in winter, when coronaviruses spread more readily, and handshakes won’t return.h There could be a fundamental fear. Our grandparents lived through the Depression. And for the rest of their lives, even when they had money and some degree of financial security, they to a degree acted like they were living through the Depression. We probably won’t go back to January in our lifetime. As I read through this I remembered my father Harold Smyth. He was a young man during the Great Depression ( yes, even in a tiny town at the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand). He said - no one had money, not your parents, or your friends. You just survived. For the rest of his life, money was security for him. He lived well, but he never forgot the days of the Great Depression. I think the scientists are right. We will come out of this but we will never forget it and our new habits of hand washing,social distancing and masking will be hard to shake. I cannot see myself in a restaurant, shaking hands, kissing cheeks or visiting friends houses. All these activities make me feel uncomfortable. Craig and I have a tiny bubble of safety - just the two of us. At this time our small bubble helps me sleep at night. Yesterday I watched Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s coffin be marched into the Capitol building by 8 representatives from the US Forces. It was so moving and I cried. For such a tiny person (5 feet 1 inch) she lived a large life. Previously this week her coffin resided in the portico of the Supreme Court and people lined up for 7 blocks to pay their respects. On the second day, Trump and his wife (both masked) stood either side of the coffin and almost immediately the crowd below began to boo and then to chant ‘vote him out’ louder and louder. The Trumps left moments later. Today Trump will announce his pick for the vacancy on the Supreme Court. That way there will be 6 conservatives and 3 liberals and Trump’s belief is that SCOTUS will be able to overturn Biden’s win (should Trump lose the election). 38 days. 38 days. Vote as if your life depends on it - because it does. And speaking of voting, our ballots arrived yesterday and we will fill them in later today and then deposit them in one of the 7 drop boxes (with security cameras) around Grand Rapids. Yesterday Craig went to �the Kent County Democratic Headquarters to get a Biden/Harris sign for our yard. He said the cars were lined up along the street and they had put a table outside the door and were handing out yard signs. They had run out of Hilary Scholten (running for Justin Amash’s House of Rep seat) and Gary Peters (incumbent senator for Michigan) and were slowly running out of the new Biden/Harris signs. Craig said it was quite a festive atmosphere. From yesterday’s Crooked Media: Two things are true at the same time. Thing one is, Donald Trump has openly threatened to dismantle American democracy in order to remain in power, and there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t follow through if given the chance. Thing two is, voters can and must deny him that chance. Our job is to make sure they do, in record-shattering numbers. 39 days. Leaf art �Oliver - doing something at daycare with herbs. He thought it was fun. ��Flashback: the day after Christmas Day we took the children for a surprise visit to Grotte de Niaux. The Niaux cave's system is complex and has a combined length of more than 14 km (8.70 mi) of underground passages and chambers. An archaeological site with a documented history of Paleo-human presence, Niaux contains numerous distinct areas and galleries of carefully drawn and vivid wall paintings, executed in a black-outlined style typical of the classic Magdalenian period, between 17,000 and 11,000 years ago. Wikipedia �����This cave is still open to visitors. You go in with a guide and each of us carrying a flashlight. There is no lighting inside the cave, you have to use your flashlight to see where to walk next. It seemed a long way in before we reached the only section of cave drawings we were allowed to view - by flashlight. You weren’t allowed to take photos, so the drawings at the top were from postcards I bought. More last south of France days tomorrow. And just in case you were uncertain about what Trump and the Republicans message means, I’ll leave you with this: �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-09-26_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-199 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 2020-09-26 Title A name given to the resource Day 199 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/02d49b73a3d266c17a6bb94831d75f37.pdf cb022353bd9174a3ab45a3587cffcbaa PDF Text Text Day 200! by windoworks Well here we are. 200 days. In 3 days it will be 29 weeks. The leaves are turning and from tomorrow the temperature is dropping and fall is upon us. Soon it will be time to close the storm windows and prepare the gardens for winter. I was talking to my friend Paul yesterday and he posts a photo online every day from his folders. He said he has pulled a photo from every folder and now he will have to begin at the first folder again for the next round. We both agreed that never in our wildest dreams did we think this would go on for so long. And it seems we may not even be half way through. �There are 37 days left to the election. Last night Trump nominated a far right leaning female judge to fill Judge Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court. At least half the country is up in arms about this. His motive is transparent - he thinks a conservative SCOTUS will rule in his favor regarding the outcome of this election. And what is motivating all the cries of foul play regarding absentee votes, by Trump, you ask? News & Guts A nutty week by any standards. But I want to call attention to what Donald Trump is really aiming for. It’s not a distraction, it’s not to motivate his base, it’s not based on anything other than fear The orange perp knows that what awaits him in 39 days is a resounding electoral defeat. Yes, his cronies may pardon him on federal level but his bigger issue is with the distinguished Manhattan District �Attorney Cy Vance whose team has sniffed out this Trump family scam. They are ready to pounce. Everything Trump thinks/breathes everyday is aimed at 1 thing, staying out of jail. He wants leverage to get a pardon from New York Gov. Cuomo before he will leave 1600 Penn. Prison won’t suit him or family well and his survival instinct has kicked in. The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr. says his office is investigating “public reports of possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.” Vance and his office have also announced that his office has the grounds to investigate the president and his businesses for tax fraud, according to New York Magazine. The thing that jumps out at me from this is Trump asking for a pardon from Governor Cuomo. Really? Governor Cuomo detests Trump and I can’t imagine him even considering a pardon. Maybe Pence? And I was thinking - who would be interested in a Donald J Trump Library? Not even Donald himself - I don’t think he reads much. Crooked Media: Mary Trump has sued her uncle Donald and his siblings for fraud, alleging that her family cheated her out of an inheritance worth tens of millions of dollars. Name a more wholesome family, we’ll wait. So, attack from all sides and even from within! Meanwhile, here’s significant change in fashion: The New Normal The last six months have been incredibly hard on retailers. Ann Taylor, Brooks Brothers, J. Crew and Lord & Taylor all declared bankruptcy in 2020, and they all had another thing in common: They made fancy clothes for the office. With so many white collar professionals working from home, sales of men’s formal wear have fallen off a steep cliff. But the business suit has been a cornerstone of men's business attire for hundreds of years. Has the pandemic finally killed off the fashion item that’s stood the test of time? Stats: numbers are not updated online over the weekend but as of Friday the US had 54,536 new cases and a total of 7.1M. Total deaths: 204K. Michigan had 1,043 new cases and a total of 134K. Total deaths: 7,044. Kent County had, as of Saturday, 83 new cases and a total of 9,048. Total deaths: 165. This daily new case total will probably bring our Kent County positivity rate over 3%. GVSU is trying to control outbreaks and it remains to be seen if Ottawa County will lift the Stay in Place order this week. Most of Craig’s students have just one face to face class. There are competing stories out there about vaccines. Who is making them, how are the trials going? Will a vaccine be safe? Now if you’re like me you would suppose that a vaccine is a vaccine is a vaccine. Not so. There are a huge number of different types of vaccine in development. Now, lets be honest - although �Trump (abetted by McConnell and Graham) can try to get a Supreme Court judge confirmed by Election Day, even he can’t magically produce a safe and effective vaccine in 37 days. Here’s a much abridged article from the New York Times: SCIENCE|Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker: Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine by next year. Researchers are testing 42 vaccines in clinical trials on humans, and at least 93 preclinical vaccines are under active investigation in animals. Work began in January with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March, but the road ahead remains uncertain. Some trials will fail, and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus. PRECLINICAL TESTING: Scientists test a new vaccine on cells and then give it to animals such as mice or monkeys to see if it produces an immune response. We have confirmed 93 preclinical vaccines in active development. PHASE 1 SAFETY TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to a small number of people to test safety and dosage as well as to confirm that it stimulates the immune system. PHASE 2 EXPANDED TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to hundreds of people split into groups, such as children and the elderly, to see if the vaccine acts differently in them. These trials further test the vaccine’s safety and ability to stimulate the immune system. PHASE 3 EFFICACY TRIALS: Scientists give the vaccine to thousands of people and wait to see how many become infected, compared with volunteers who received a placebo. These trials can determine if the vaccine protects against the coronavirus. In June, the F.D.A. said that a coronavirus vaccine would have to protect at least 50% of vaccinated people to be considered effective. In addition, Phase 3 trials are large enough to reveal evidence of relatively rare side effects that might be missed in earlier studies. EARLY OR LIMITED APPROVAL: China and Russia have approved vaccines without waiting for the results of Phase 3 trials. Experts say the rushed process has serious risks. APPROVAL: Regulators in each country review the trial results and decide whether to approve the vaccine or not. During a pandemic, a vaccine may receive emergency use authorization before getting formal approval. Once a vaccine is licensed, researchers continue to monitor people who receive it to make sure it’s safe and effective. COMBINED PHASES: One way to accelerate vaccine development is to combine phases. Some coronavirus vaccines are now in Phase 1/2 trials, for example, in which they are tested for the first time on hundreds of people. (Note that our tracker would count a combined Phase 1/2 trial as both Phase 1 and Phase 2.) Authors note: there are several different types of vaccines, all under trial, and all work in different ways: �1. Genetic Vaccines Vaccines that deliver one or more of the coronavirus’s own genes into our cells to provoke an immune response. 2. Viral Vector Vaccines Vaccines that contain viruses engineered to carry coronavirus genes. Some viral vector vaccines enter cells and cause them to make viral proteins. Other viral vectors slowly replicate, carrying coronavirus proteins on their surface. 3. Protein-Based Vaccines Vaccines that contain coronavirus proteins but no genetic material. Some vaccines contain whole proteins, and some contain fragments of them. Some pack many of these molecules on nanoparticles. 4. Inactivated or Attenuated Coronavirus Vaccines Vaccines created from weakened coronaviruses or coronaviruses that have been killed with chemicals. 5. Repurposed Vaccines Vaccines already in use for other diseases that may also protect against Covid-19. 135 vaccines in trials (at least). Now under each of those 5 headings there is an exhaustive list of individual companies/universities - but you can look that up for yourself. Hopefully one vaccine will prove effective and safe and available to all by late 2021 - or not. So in the meantime its what we have: the Big Three. Hand washing, masking and social distancing. Leaf art! �And Oliver, of course. ��This morning I have a video of Oliver watching a clip on his mothers phone and dancing (and then ‘singing’ ) along with it in his high chair. Almost the end of our 6 month sojourn in Europe. �����After the visit to Grotte de Niaux, it was time for lunch and we had brought a picnic lunch with us. Nearby was the ruined Chateau de Miglos. After lunch the children scrambled all over it even though it said clearly (in French) Keep Out. And then to end the outing, we took everyone to Foix, as Zar and Alva and Leah hadn’t been there before. ���To finish off our last day, we went to dinner at our favorite cafe in Mirepoix. �Which was lit up for Christmas. Then back home for our last evening in front of the fire. �Tomorrow then � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-09-27_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-200 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 2020-09-27 Title A name given to the resource Day 200 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/9410bb2c991b53d0506ca9e13c9826ef.pdf 08e973a565592fe2f35da1c8256a75f9 PDF Text Text Day 201 by windoworks Lets go for another 200 days, shall we? As I write this morning, it is dark and gloomy. After 3 days of warm sunny weather, it is cold and raining. Ah well, it can’t be summer for ever. Today it is 36 days to the election. Craig and I received our Absentee Ballots and will be delivering them back later today. The crazy continues to ramp up. Over the weekend the New York Times finally received copies of Trump’s tax returns that he fought so hard for 4 years to conceal. Here’s a brief summary of what they found: Even though taxes on wealthy Americans have fallen sharply in recent decades, most still pay a lot to the federal government. A typical billionaire pays tens of millions of dollars in federal income taxes each year. Yesterday, The Times published an investigation of Trump’s finances, based on thousands of pages of documents that had not previously been public. They showed that Trump paid no taxes in 11 of the 18 years between 2000 and 2017. In both 2016 and 2017, he paid only $750. He was able to do so both because many of his businesses report losing large amounts of money — which reduces his taxable income — and because he has engaged in questionable tax practices. Even while declaring losses, he has managed to enjoy a lavish lifestyle by taking tax deductions on what most people would consider personal expenses, including residences, aircraft and $70,000 in hairstyling for television. The investigation also found that: • As president, he has received more money from foreign sources and U.S. interest groups than previously known. • Ivanka Trump, while working as an employee of the Trump Organization, appears to have received “consulting fees” that also helped reduce the family’s tax bill. • Trump is facing a series of large looming bills in the next few years, and it is not obvious how he will cover them. I have to say that the $70,000 paid for hair styling was wasted. I wonder how much he spends on his fake tan? Yesterday we packed our lunch and drove to Saugatuck and Douglas. Saugatuck was packed - people were eating lunch and wandering the streets but there was hardly anyone shopping inside stores, and yes, most wore masks. Douglas was much quieter. They had interesting yard signs. �To be honest I thought Joe Biden fitted the ‘anyone’ category. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we drove to Olive Beach to eat our lunch. ��The lake was wild and once again, the beach has been eroded by the rising water level. There were areas of slips along the lakeshore and many of the dunes have been declared unstable. I have a friend who lives on the lakeshore and they have installed boulders on the sand below their house in an effort to shore up the foundations. Here’s a piece which explains how Trump governs: Washington Post President Trump thinks he knows better than anyone, but not because he actually knows very much. His 2016 campaign was run from the gut, under the explicit rationale that “experts are terrible” and that whatever someone with a degree and years of experience could do in any area of government, he could do better relying on instinct. His White House has conducted itself according to this philosophy, to devastating effect. From debt to taxes to renewable energy to trade to jobs to infrastructure to defense, the president has declared himself the best informed in all the land. What need, then, for a science adviser — a post Mr. Trump left vacant for 19 months? Why worry if more than a third of senior positions in the Pentagon or Department of Homeland Security have no confirmed appointee? Why not drive out most of the �workforce of the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service, as the administration did, intentionally, by abruptly moving the agency to the Kansas City region? The best sort of expert, in Mr. Trump’s view, is the kind with no independent judgment at all. And look where that has got us. The first debate is on Tuesday night and here’s Trump’s plan: Washington Post President Trump is gearing up to launch blistering personal attacks on Joe Biden and his family in the first presidential debate on Tuesday, while Biden is bracing for an onslaught and worried allies are warning the Democratic nominee not to lose his temper and lash out, according to people with knowledge of the strategies in both camps. Trump has told associates he wants to talk specifically about his opponent’s son Hunter Biden and mused that the debates are when “people will finally realize Biden is just not there,” according to one adviser. The president is so eager to lay into his rival that he has called aides to test out various attacks, focusing on broadsides that cast Biden as a longtime Washington insider with a limited record of accomplishment, said another adviser, who like many interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe private talks. Trump has coined the phrase ‘Sleepy Joe’ to describe Joe Biden. Biden has taken this onboard and said that its correct, because all Americans will be able to sleep at night when he is president. And actually, Joe, that’s true. I want a president I don’t have to think or hear about every single day, so I can get on with dealing with virus life uninterrupted. Speaking of the virus, here’s a heavily edited piece from an anonymous FaceBook source (not Dr Fauci): Chickenpox is a virus. Lots of people have had it, and probably don't think about it much once the initial illness has passed. But it stays in your body and lives there forever, and maybe when you're older, you have debilitatingly painful outbreaks of shingles. You don't just get over this virus in a few weeks, never to have another health effect. We know this because it's been around for years, and has been studied medically for years. Herpes is also a virus. And once someone has it, it stays in your body and lives there forever. We know this because it's been around for years, and has been studied medically for years. HIV is a virus. It attacks the immune system and makes the carrier far more vulnerable to other illnesses. It has a list of symptoms and negative health impacts that goes on and on. It was decades before viable treatments were developed that allowed people to live with a reasonable quality of life. Once you have it, it lives in your body forever.We know this because it has been around for years, and has been studied medically for years. �Now with COVID-19, we have a novel virus that spreads rapidly and easily. The full spectrum of symptoms and health effects is only just beginning to be cataloged, much less understood. People testing positive for COVID-19 have been documented to be sick even after 60 days. Many people are sick for weeks, get better, and then experience a rapid and sudden flare up and get sick all over again.This disease has not been around for years. It has basically been 6 months. No one knows yet the long-term health effects, or how it may present itself years down the road for people who have been exposed. We literally do not know what we do not know. The more things we can all do to mitigate our risk of exposure, the better off we all are. Not only does it flatten the curve and allow health care providers to maintain levels of service that aren't immediately and catastrophically overwhelmed; it also reduces unnecessary suffering and deaths, and buys time for the scientific community to study the virus in order to come to a more full understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short and long term. Leaf art And Oliver, of course. �Last day and last outing. We went up over the Pyrenees to Puigcerda, for lunch, shopping and sightseeing. �Fabulous painted walls inside the church. �A building decorated for Christmas. �Inside the church �Standing on the wall to photograph the Pyrenees. �On the way back, Leah and Zoe standing between the two towers - yet another castle/fortress. It was so much fun having the children visit but it was coming to an end. We went home and packed, ready to leave in the morning. It is getting harder to write this post. The president and his cohorts seem to have thrown all decent behavior to the winds and each day there is a litany of stupid, thoughtless, selfish acts carried out. We are voting, we have yard signs and we have prepared for as many outcomes as possible. Now we are waiting and seeing. Its not my favorite occupation. � 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_2020-09-28_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-201 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 2020-09-28 Title A name given to the resource Day 201 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/7417dd77f592c9046159a7613ee5adfc.pdf 26095845082242bd17f3c5abb6d3e670 PDF Text Text Day 202 – 35 days to the election. Have you voted yet? by windoworks At the beginning of this pandemic in March, restaurants and cafes all around us closed and then came up with alternate ways to continue business. Many offered curbside pick up - you ordered and paid either by phone or online, and then you drove over and they brought your order to the car. The rules have been relaxed somewhat and now, restaurants are offering dine in opportunities. But its not as easy as it might sound. Here’s the story of a popular diner in Kansas: Washington Post Before the shutdown, Ladybird Diner was a busy spot on the main street of this college town, where up to 600 people a day packed into the tiny space, a swirl of chaos and vitality, pancakes and pie — coconut cream with lofty meringue, apple with rustic latticework and the one they called the Duchess, with a sour cream custard and blackberries, topped with oat crumble. The “Fresh Daily” case was empty now, the turquoise vinyl booths devoid of diners and the rotating dessert tower turned into temporary storage for loaves of bread. Days after Heriford closed her doors in March and laid off her staff, she and two former employees began making sack lunches for anybody in town who needed one — “no strings, no questions, no substitutions.” The need was acute — the homeless population had been increasing even before the pandemic with 9,100 people in the county out of work in April, about a quarter of them from the food service industry. At first, it was a simple: white paper bags with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some chips, but word spread quickly. Eventually, they were feeding more than 200 a day in a program funded by community donations, some 13,000 meals for furloughed factory workers, laid-off bartenders, cleaners with no homes to clean, mechanics with nothing to repair. Now, her state is in the middle of a rocky reopening and Heriford, 46, finds herself facing the same tough decisions many restaurateurs and chefs are grappling with across the country as the restaurant industry recovery has stalled and the United States remains in the grip of the deadly coronavirus. Amid this pandemic summer, some restaurants have yet to reopen, still struggling to find a workable way forward with diminished capacity or takeout only. Others tried to restart, only to shut down again as cases surged. And many more are gone forever — more than 100,000 restaurants have closed nationwide since the start of the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association, with tens of thousands more expected to close. And this story from Oregon Washington Post �Bonnie and Israel Morales felt the impact of the coronavirus at Kachka Alfresca from the start. The couple behind Kachka, a popular Russian restaurant in Portland, Ore., introduced outdoor dining in June, on a stretch of concrete previously used as a parking lot. Nearly 30 picnic tables, each under its own tent and some covered in a blue-and-white striped cloth that evoked Russian naval shirts, were spread far enough apart to keep diners at a safe distance. Portlanders ate it up. Despite its success, Bonnie and Israel Morales don’t plan to prep the tables for winter. They’re not going to rent outdoor heaters (assuming they can even find them) or construct greenhouse-like pods to shelter diners from the elements. They’re planning to kill off Kachka Alfresca on Oct. 11 in favor of other ways to generate revenue, including takeout and retail sales of their frozen dumplings and forthcoming horseradish vodka. The pandemic has already devastated the country’s restaurant industry. Millions of jobs have been lost, and nearly 100,000 restaurants have closed permanently or indefinitely since the outbreak, according to a recent surveyfrom the National Restaurant Association. Restaurateurs are expected to lose $240 million this year, and the worst may be yet to come as winter looms, threatening to slow down or shut down outdoor dining spaces that have given owners hope that they might survive this crisis until a vaccine is widely available. Winter is approaching here in Michigan and the outdoor social zones won’t be warm enough to allow customers to eat safely outside. I was always so proud of all the varied restaurants, bars and cafes within walking distance from our house. It seems only those establishments with drive through facilities will survive the winter. But to be honest, we are not take out consumers, preferring instead to cook our own food. After 202 days, it gets a little tired thinking of new meals to make. As a child I remember restaurant meals as a once a year special occasion event, and this seems to be my future! Certainly, the pandemic has allowed Craig and I to hone our cooking skills and my pantry now holds items that we will eat as opposed to new items we might try. The last 3 ‘perhaps we’ll eat this someday’ items went to a nearby food library 2 days ago. Tonight is the first presidential debate. Its irrelevant to me as we filled in our absentee ballots yesterday and drove down to one of the seven drop boxes in Grand Rapids and dropped ours in. However, in impeccably timed news released, Trump’s taxes will feature in everyone’s thinking. Here’s a piece from Crooked Media; A bombshell New York Times report found that Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017, and paid no federal income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years. He pulled that off by reporting staggering business losses, leading to the inevitable conclusion that Trump has either a) lied to voters about being good at business, b) lied on his tax forms, or c) lied about everything, at all times, to everyone, while stealing from lower-income taxpayers to prop up his own businesses. A real headscratcher! The tax returns expose not only Trump’s failures as a businessman, but his vulnerability to pressure from �authoritarian regimes. During his first two years in office, Trump’s revenue from abroad totaled $73 million—including revenue from licensing deals in geopolitically sensitive countries like India, Turkey, and the Philippines. (In a damning reflection of our broken tax system, Trump paid substantial taxes in those countries while stiffing the U.S. government.) Trump’s records also show that he raked in $2.3 million from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, courtesy of a family with close ties to Vladimir Putin. Trump has been fighting the IRS over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million income-tax refund he claimed and received in 2010; if he loses, he could be forced to pay back over $100 million. He’s already personally responsible for loans and debts totaling at least $421 million, with most of it coming due in the next four years. That kind of debt would rightly preclude most people from receiving security clearance. If reelected, what’s to stop Trump from making national policy decisions based on what his (unknown, potentially foreign) lenders demand? Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 to boost his flagging marketability, has used the office to support his failing businesses, and is now prepared to steal an election to avoid accountability for the mountain of debt he can’t afford to pay. Trump was terrified of voters finding out that he is, above all, pathetic. We can work with that. And what do prominent Republican lawmakers have to say about this: New York Times G.O.P. nonreaction: Republican lawmakers — including Senator Mitch McConnell — reacted with nearly complete silence to the revelation that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, and that his businesses are riddled with debt. In other news, the world reached a terrible milestone this week: New York Times. An agonizing toll One million people worldwide have now died from confirmed coronavirus cases. It is a staggering toll — greater than the number of people estimated to have died from malaria, influenza, cholera and measles, combined, over the same period. And the real number of coronavirus deaths is almost certainly higher. The U.S., with 4 percent of the world’s population, has suffered more than 20 percent of deaths. And if that wasn’t depressing enough, there’s this: Washington Post Despite early hopes that contracting covid-19 would confer immunity to the coronavirus going forward, a large national study estimates that fewer than 1 in 10 Americans has antibodies. Combined with similar �results from other recent research, it’s evident a large majority of the population is still susceptible to the coronavirus. “This shows us how it’s not over here, not even by a long shot,” said Eli Rosenberg, an epidemiologist in New York. So that’s where we live, here in the US and in most other places in the world. So we have to make the best of what we have - phone family and friends, eat well, sleep soundly and as winter approaches, stay warm. Keep washing your hands (I can’t remember not counting to 20 each time I wash my hands), wear a mask outside, stay in your bubble and distance from everyone else. Here’s a reminder of how not to wear your mask: One more time for the people in the back - it covers your mouth AND your nose. Thank you. �The last leaf art (don’t worry, I have something else for tomorrow) �Its Oliver time again: ��My in-laws keep finding these treasures on the side of the road and they’re always a treat for Oliver. �And so its over: �����The children packing up their rental car, waving good bye and driving out of sight. After cleaning the house, we packed up our car and began the journey home. I’ll leave you today with this: �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-09-29_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-202 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 2020-09-29 Title A name given to the resource Day 202 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