I\u2019ve felt a lack of enthusiasm and motivation the past few days. School is winding down. M is done Friday. C and L are done next week. Assignments have already dried up and they\u2019re just running out the clock. A few teachers seem to have checked out, too, which makes it tough to motivate the girls.<\/p>\n
The news has devolved further, making me less and less interested in paying attention to what\u2019s going on, and making my blood pressure rise when I do check in. I\u2019ve starting to clear out my Twitter feed of some accounts that I very much enjoy and inform me simply because the stories they share are so infuriating.<\/p>\n
The weather doesn\u2019t help. This has been a wacky spring, full of swings back-and-forth. Which is what Midwest springs are supposed to be. But they\u2019ve seemed especially wild this year simply because the nice days feel like moments of bliss and relief while the nasty days you can feel the walls creeping in on you.<\/p>\n
Fortunately some of that may be changing. After today, we appear set for a long stretch of days near 80. It will likely rain several of those days, but at least it will be warm.<\/p>\n
The crew was just here to open the pool. I\u2019m guessing the girls will be jumping in the moment the heater has run long enough to make the water tolerable. It was 57 degrees last time I checked, so it may take awhile to get there.<\/p>\n
L had a quick get together with her class Monday at a park. The motivation was so they could present their teacher with her year-end gifts and get a chance to see each other. Despite the cold, damp, raw day, we spent nearly 90 minutes there, mostly because all the parents were talking. The parents did pretty well with the social distancing. I\u2019m not sure the kids did.<\/p>\n
I think I mentioned this last week but every moment like that comes with very strong, mixed feelings. And then after the fact you wonder if it was worth it. It seems like being outside is the best way to safely interact with others, so I\u2019m not super worried about it. This does seem to be how things are going to be for the foreseeable future, though: trying to balance safe and sane, hoping for the best in the process.<\/p>\n
Normally S does not watch a lot of TV. Her evenings, in the past, were generally filled with hours of charting. She would come home, eat dinner, crack open the laptop, do one to four hours\u2019 worth of charting, then go to bed. She has one show she watches, Outlander<\/em>, and she\u2019ll run through those seasons pretty quickly after they drop then re-watch them. There\u2019s the occasional movie but otherwise she is not in front of a screen for fun very often.<\/p>\n Until the past two months. She has been extraordinarily busy at times, some days filled with 12 hours of conference calls and associated work. But she also has almost no charting and, after those first 2–3 weeks, the calls slowed down and actually left her with free time. (Worth mentioning that the calls are picking back up as her system tries to figure out the reopening process. This may be more stressful than the shutting down process as management is pushing for changes that no one seems happy about.)<\/p>\n That\u2019s a long lead in to sharing how I think she\u2019s watched more TV than any of us during this break. She\u2019s plowed through a bunch of shows and movies. Most nights, and some afternoons, you can find her with her laptop and my headphones, laughing at whatever is currently amusing her. Often she\u2019ll try to go to bed but can\u2019t shut her brain off. I\u2019ll come up an hour or so later to find her in bed, watching a show on her phone in the dark.<\/p>\n This break has sucked for all of us, but she\u2019s had the most stress and responsibility throughout. I\u2019m glad she\u2019s found an outlet that allows her to check-out for a bit and actually have some fun.<\/p>\n Amazon delivery seems to be approaching normal again. There are still regular items that seem to be taking more like a week to show up, but more and more things show a delivery window within a couple days.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve started gaming the system a little. Whenever I have a chance, I\u2019ve been taking the second tier of free delivery that pushes arrival back a bit, but offers a credit for digital services in exchange. If I\u2019m going to be buying more Kindle books than normal, I might as well collect some coupons to reduce that cost!<\/p>\n Indianapolis\/Marion County just announced phase one of their reopening process. Restrictions begin lifting Friday. Restaurants can reopen to outside seating only next Friday. Man, I have no interest in being inside a restaurant any time soon. Not sure I even want to sit outside of one. I feel a little bad about that. The restaurant business is a tough one in good times. I\u2019d like support locally owned places and their staffs by getting food and drink from them, tipping the wait staff, etc. I am not keen to be in any enclosed space with a bunch of strangers, though. I think we will be sticking to carryout for quite some time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve felt a lack of enthusiasm and motivation the past few days. School is winding down. M is done Friday. C and L are done next week. Assignments have already dried up and they\u2019re just running out the clock. A few teachers seem to have checked out, too, which makes it tough to motivate the girls. The news has devolved further, making me less and less interested in paying attention to what\u2019s going on, and making my blood pressure rise when I do check in. I\u2019ve starting to clear out my Twitter feed of some accounts that I very much enjoy and inform me simply because the stories they share are so infuriating. The weather doesn\u2019t help. This has been a wacky spring, full of swings back-and-forth. Which is what Midwest springs are supposed to be. But they\u2019ve seemed especially wild this year simply because the nice days feel like moments of bliss and relief while the nasty days you can feel the walls creeping in on you. Fortunately some of that may be changing. After today, we appear set for a long stretch of days near 80. It will likely rain several of those days, but at least it will be warm. The crew was just here to open the pool. I\u2019m guessing the girls will be jumping in the moment the heater has run long enough to make the water tolerable. It was 57 degrees last time I checked, so it may take awhile to get there. L had a quick get together with her class Monday at a park. The motivation was so they could present their teacher with her year-end gifts and get a chance to see each other. Despite the cold, damp, raw day, we spent nearly 90 minutes there, mostly because all the parents were talking. The parents did pretty well with the social distancing. I\u2019m not sure the kids did. I think I mentioned this last week but every moment like that comes with very strong, mixed feelings. And then after the fact you wonder if it was worth it. It seems like being outside is the best way to safely interact with others, so I\u2019m not super worried about it. This does seem to be how things are going to be for the foreseeable future, though: trying to balance safe and sane, hoping for the best in the process. Normally S does not watch a lot of TV. Her evenings, in the past, were generally filled with hours of charting. She would come home, eat dinner, crack open the laptop, do one to four hours\u2019 worth of charting, then go to bed. She has one show she watches, Outlander, and she\u2019ll run through those seasons pretty quickly after they drop then re-watch them. There\u2019s the occasional movie but otherwise she is not in front of a screen for fun very often. Until the past two months. She has been extraordinarily busy at times, some days filled with 12 hours of conference calls and associated work. But she also has almost no charting and, after those first 2–3 weeks, the calls slowed down and actually left her with free time. (Worth mentioning that the calls are picking back up as her system tries to figure out the reopening process. This may be more stressful than the shutting down process as management is pushing for changes that no one seems happy about.) That\u2019s a long lead in to sharing how I think she\u2019s watched more TV than any of us during this break. She\u2019s plowed through a bunch of shows and movies. Most nights, and some afternoons, you can find her with her laptop and my headphones, laughing at whatever is currently amusing her. Often she\u2019ll try to go to bed but can\u2019t shut her brain off. I\u2019ll come up an hour or so later to find her in bed, watching a show on her phone in the dark. This break has sucked for all of us, but she\u2019s had the most stress and responsibility throughout. I\u2019m glad she\u2019s found an outlet that allows her to check-out for a bit and actually have some fun. Amazon delivery seems to be approaching normal again. There are still regular items that seem to be taking more like a week to show up, but more and more things show a delivery window within a couple days. I\u2019ve started gaming the system a little. Whenever I have a chance, I\u2019ve been taking the second tier of free delivery that pushes arrival back a bit, but offers a credit for digital services in exchange. If I\u2019m going to be buying more Kindle books than normal, I might as well collect some coupons to reduce that cost! Indianapolis\/Marion County just announced phase one of their reopening process. Restrictions begin lifting Friday. Restaurants can reopen to outside seating only next Friday. Man, I have no interest in being inside a restaurant any time soon. Not sure I even want to sit outside of one. I feel a little bad about that. The restaurant business is a tough one in good times. I\u2019d like support locally owned places and their staffs by getting food and drink from them, tipping the wait staff, etc. I am not keen to be in any enclosed space with a bunch of strangers, though. I think we will be sticking to carryout for quite some time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[111,26,74,14,63],"class_list":["post-8010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-covid","tag-family","tag-indianapolis","tag-parenting","tag-school"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12992,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8010\/revisions\/12992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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