India on my mind...

I don't get to watch the news very often, but I am not hearing anyone talk about this:  India's Covid rates have skyrocketed over the last couple of weeks.  My colleague told me about it / we looked up stats one day after school.  It's just insane.  Yes - the US was pretty high once.... but it was a short peak.  They've surpassed the "high" Covid rate that the US had back in January and they keep going. 

So far, in this "2nd surge" they hit 330,000 positive cases this week in one day.   And it's still on the rise.

A National Geographic article that I just read said that they relaxed their thinking that the virus was under control.  They exported a lot of their oxygen supplies and vaccinations.  The article talked about new variants too (The UK variant hit there B.1.1.7 -- but so has  an Indian variant B.1.617 and this one has 2 mutations.)  There was also a large - 3.5 million - religious event where people partook in a "holy bath" in the Gagne River.  Now - it's being looked at as a super spreader event.  

The population there is so large.  There is so much poverty. They are hosting mass cremations as they're overrun with fatalities.    This is heartbreaking.  

Here are more statistics (from earlier in the week) comparing the US and India.  Not great images - screen shots, but very telling.  

Look at the green "bar" across the bottom of the 1st screen.  This shows India's population as it relates to % of people vaccinated.    And the same green bar across the bottom of the US map.

Amazingly, India - with all of it's population and poverty, it was relatively low 'til recently.

And, here is the growing death rate.  The US is still higher, but at the rate that India is going, I imagine they'll surpass us shortly.

It's really shocking and grim.  At the beginning of this pandemic here in the US - there were mass burials in New York in long trenches.  This makes me think of that again.  Horrific.

(Sometimes I just want to document here on blogger.)  I fear - for them - this is still growing and climbing.  They just don't have the resources there en masse like we do.  And their population is enormous.  And in many cases, the living conditions are beyond awful.  

The Earth is a collection of ecosystems.  Viruses, human population, natural disasters / storms and the like certainly define these ecosytems across the world.  

In many places - because of Covid - there will be a noticeable change .  

I believe this is just the beginning of a MAJOR change of the face of India.  

Happy Adoption Day

Yesterday was Isabella's adoption day.  It, unfortunately, fell on a very very busy day!

We had a chiropractic appointment followed by team photos and her baseball game.  She had a pretty good game - hitting 4 for 4 with a couple of doubles and knocked in some RBIs.  She crossed the plate herself a couple of times.  It was a tough game, but they won!  She found a grasshopper at the baseball field, so she was happy about both!

Here she is the next day... yes the thing slept in our house in a box.  She - seriously - played with this thing for 3 hours until it (sadly) jumped and "flew" away.  Off-and-on all day she was sad and she cried herself to sleep because she wasn't ready to give up the grasshopper quite as early.

I had a pick-up downtown to get plants for our garden.  I also had a nice (masked) visit with a friend who lives on the same street as the garden.  She gave me a sourdough starter... guess I'll be giving that a try~

Mercer had team photos and his baseball at another field.  Mercer also had middle school campout before / after his game.  Todd dropped him off for a couple of hours, then picked him up to take up to the evening baseball game.  Isabella played with friends at the game and played with the grasshopper she found at her game earlier in the day.   Todd dropped Mercer back at the campsite (on a farm near Kennesaw Mountain park) and came home to eat a very late dinner with Isabella and myself.   Whew.

What Isabella asked for to eat for dinner:  Wendy's.  (frosty and fries)  That's what you get when you ask an 8 year old what she wants.   Easy!  I guess Wendy's (Dave Thomas Foundation) supports adoption - so it's fitting.

It was a total juggle, but I don't think she cared as much as we did.  It seems like she had a good day.  (We got her a watercolor set of pencils of her own (she was a little jealous of her brother's set that he got for Easter).  She got some games for her Nintendo and a chapter book set on dragons.  Ironically and a happy coincidence - the Wendy's toy that came with her meal was a dragon that she got to put together!

Isabella had STEM camp at her new school to try it out / get used to it.  She was reluctant to go, but knew a few kids there, so said it was OK.  

(She sure does like this STEM stuff here in my classroom, however!)  I think she just didn't have a good experience with STEM at her current school so was upset at first to go to this event.  

Todd just got his 2nd covid shot today through my school.  He's taken Phizer.  We're hopeful that he doesn't have side effects like I did last week from my Moderna 2nd shot.  I was "out" on Saturday after having received it Friday.  I felt better Sunday, but Monday at work, cold sweats and chills came over me / I left.  

I made up for it.... I worked so much this week and even put in some extra time (with a little helper) to help unbox, organize and "try out" the different things I ordered the week before break that came in.  :)   She enjoyed using the x-acto knife (under my supervision, of course), color pencils and a compass. 

I realized that I did not post stats for the Corona virus on the last post.  

3   MILLION   PEOPLE   have died from this in the past 1 year + 1 month.

Here's an updated infographic to one I posted last year:  The Covid "poof" is at the bottom.

April Happenings...

 

As usual, Todd and I wore ourselves out putting on a fun day for the kiddos on Easter!!

We started the day with brunch and baskets -- even the "family" got a basket this year with games + dog treats.  (Pictured here is a "resurrection roll" which is to expand and the contents melt so that it looks empty like the empty tomb of Jesus. Some of the rolls worked, but many of them fell flat.  It was kind of cool on the ones that worked -- and luckily the kids got those!) 

We watched church online - which was very very casual.  (The kids are NOT going to know how to act once we go back in person, as they've started belting out the words to the songs like no one else is around!) 

We went for a short hike at nearby Kennesaw Mountain Park (well, Isabella and I played Frisbee in a big field while Todd and Mercer hiked around the field). 

We hosted an egg hunt for the kids in our yard so that they didn't miss out on any of the usual traditions.  

We found a painted rock by our sign in the front yard while doing the egg hunt.  Which - was a nice surprise!

Todd made a beef wellington for dinner (fancy~) and I made a lemon icebox pie with blueberry-lemon topping for dessert.... which Mercer loves but I don't love making.  It takes a long time... but it IS good and springy.  

It was quiet -- just the 4 of us -- like normal, except for the dressing up / going to church.

We dyed eggs the night before.  

Hmmm... come to think of it - we never did anything with those eggs... time to throw them out!  (I was going to make my once-a-year deviled eggs... or try my hand at egg salad.  Oh well!  Maybe next year~)

We were also gifted an edible arrangement from Rose Marie (instead of her Easter cookies?)  wink~    what a nice surprise!  :)

The next day, I worked on my teacher class stuff (comments came back from the reviewer).  

The day after that, the kids and I headed out of town for a quick 3-day / 2-night get-away... destination... someplace warmer (south).  We got there right at check-in, unpacked a little, and headed to the water.  

Isabella always gets so excited when we stay some place new.  She thought the place was very nice!

My favorite thing was the screened-in porch and rockers with drink holders!  That was a nice touch~

We fished from the dock.  

(Hmmm... come to think of it - we still have the fishing worms in our 'fridge to now put in the garden... but the gardening didn't happen this weekend like I thought it would...) 

We didn't catch anything, but the place we went - Seminole State Park - apparently has some great bass fishing.  There is a lot of grass in the shallow water and they like to hide in that grass, even close to the shore (according to the write-up in the cabin).  

The fishing line got tangled so, Isabella resorted to playing in the water after awhile -- which made for some great photos!  

I had to run back-and-forth between Mercer - who was trying to build a fire - and Isabella who was playing in the water's edge.  

I trusted her, however, there were signs posted for alligators, so... I didn't want to go too far away!!   (The water was quite clear for some distance and we had not seen evidence of any gators, but still...)   

Check out this side-burn picture.... :) 

We accidentally left the porch light on while we were down cooking dinner over the fire.  But - a cool thing happened.  A little frog was on the screen eating the little bugs that were trying to get in the porch - headed towards the light.  (There were also 2 lizards at the top of the screen, but I didn't mention those - I was having a hard enough time getting Isabella inside to get ready for bed!) 

I've had a bad habit of getting up early during this whole spring break!  (It's going to take awhile to un-do that habit!)  I had no internet, so I couldn't work.  I went out to the porch, then walked back over to the dock.  It was just before sunrise and it was eerie!  I couldn't see the sun rise because the fog was too dense.  

Now would be the time for an alligator to be lurking... and we'd never know!  There were weird noises coming from the water -- some from far away in the pond.  Some close by.  Clicking and splashing noises... so I didn't hang out there too long!  

Isn't this alligator sign a bit more creepy when you can't see what lies beyond?!  

I had nothing to do, so I went back to bed.  Isabella and I shared a room. She had a bad dream and woke us both up later...  

We needed to get started with our day anyways.

We hit the road and headed down some long, seriously boring roads to continue our journey south.   Mercer talked about all of the abandoned buildings on the side of the road:  "need groceries - oh wait - this abandoned building used to be the grocery store.  Need to buy a car...here's your car shop.  Oh wait - it's falling in and abandoned."  This went on and on!  The highlight of the drive was when one of those giant sprinklers that span across acres of farms was broken and shooting water across the road!  ha.

We were only 1 1/2 - 2 hours away from the beach.  I had scoped out a beach that a neighbor of ours (Paul & Kelly) used to live in -- in fact Paul was the town manager for this city:  Mexico Beach.  We went there first, but couldn't find any food venues that agreed with our 13 year old, so we went to the neighboring beach called Port St. Joe.

  

(Too bad - Mexico Beach had crystal blue waters.  But - it was hit hard by Hurricane Michael several years ago and most everything was wiped out.  There was so much rebuilding, but... since we were visitors, we needed a real restaurant to grab lunch.  It was set up more for rentals and not so much for the restaurant scene.  Maybe sometime we can rent a place down there / bring our own groceries and explore more?)  

The restaurant that Mercer picked out in Port St. Joe actually hit the spot!  I haven't eaten at a place in such a long time... and had a fresh salad that was sooo good.  Much better than the bagged salads we've been eating from the grocery during the pandemic!)  He was happy with his brick-oven pizza.... and - yes - since we were on vacation, I let Isabella order the chocolate pot (she had eaten a meal-like snack in the car).   

It felt like a little bit of normal!  

Port St. Joe beach was OK.  It wasn't crystal clear, however.  The only thing I can think of is perhaps because it's behind a barrier peninsula -- and it holds the water in instead of allowing the water to change constantly?  Isabella was happy enough playing in the water, though.  

Mercer, however, was not.  He did not want to change into his bathing suit.  He did not want to go in.  He was thrilled to *finally* have cell service and sat on his phone.  (I was disappointed, obviously.)   Isabella swallowed some of the salt water and almost threw up, so we decided to head back to the cabin.  

We picked up food along the way (since there were no grocery stores near our cabin), ate dinner and made another bonfire.  We had s'mores for dessert.  Cool purple flame in the picture - but we couldn't figure out why.... it didn't look purple in real life??    

Isabella and I looked at the stars for a long time, then we all called it a night.

Isabella and I both got up early the next morning so I had her come out to see the sunrise. It was over the woods behind our cabin.  We ate a junky gas-station breakfast.  Mercer finished the little tub of ice cream we shared the 1st night there -- so he was happy to have "breakfast dessert!"

(this last photo is of a goofy face that he's been making lately.)  

We packed up our belongings from the cabin into the car before we set out on our last venture at the state park.

They had a nature trail in the woods that were close to our cabin, so we decided to check it out.  The land there is strange (all along our drive, it seemed barren.  Also, in the state park, it did as well.  Maybe the landscape was altered by the storm from a few years prior? 

It took, like, 8 photos before they were both looking at me at the same time!  It's a little goofy, but it's what I've got~

 

Thankfully, the trees opened up and there was a big lily-pad filled lake with a cool boardwalk that went across.  That was a nice surprise to the otherwise barren landscape!

For some reason, I woke up with a migraine that morning - which made for a long drive home.  Also, the bikes took a jump over a bump and they shifted while we were driving.  We pulled over for lunch at a farm-house / general store I had read about (since we drove by it on the way down).  Luckily, while Mercer and I tried to fix the bike rack, Isabella was entertained by horses, a miniature horse ("Oagley") and baby ducks.  We were there for a long time because of the bikes, but we got it fixed-up enough and headed back home.

Isabella didn't want to leave the cabin or our "adventure", but she sure was excited when she saw Todd and Hip-Hop again at home.  It wasn't our best trip, but -- it was good to get away for a few days and see some things we had not seen before.  Mercer was a little out of his comfort zone.  I was too, honestly, as I had planned this trip without really knowing what was in store.  

On the positive side, it forced me NOT to work since there was no service!

(Before we left, I held a tutoring session for my students on Monday during break. Also, before / after our trip, I marked up design drawings students submitted for a competition that is put on by the AIA.   I got back to reality pretty quick the next day because the competition drawings for my students were due that day -- Friday.  (I also got my 2nd dose of the Covid shot that my school system was offering over break on that Friday.  Todd got his 1st one through my school system a couple of weekends before and is due for his next one soon.) 

Unfortunately, I have been experiencing some side-effects (fever, chills, body aches) -- but it's worth it.  I hope Todd's go better than mine!  I was glad not to have to have driven back out to Alabama for my 2nd shot.  (Plus, our school system gave us treats - free chicken sandwich or salad + a lollipop.)  

Doing it this way, I had a weekend to recover afterwards.  There was no baseball since we were at the end of Spring Break, so the timing was pretty good in that regard.  I had wanted to garden / redo our community garden, but...

In a few days, we're headed into the final stretch of school... the kids get out at the end of May.  As a teacher, I have a little extra time to work afterwards into early June.  It was a quick trip, but I am glad to have had a diversion -- a small outing -- before we go into this 7 week haul!

Wish us luck!!  :) 

_____

There are a few additional things to add to the blog that are not related:

- Isabella had lice again...  I checked and we asked the nurse to check early on, however, we didn't see anything.   We thought she was having an allergic reaction to her hair products / changed them all out after lots of research.  (sigh - oh well!)  The lice magician came out again to work her magic on the spur of notice.  Of course, Isabella missed some school - which means that we missed a little bit of work...   but I finally figure out the "procedure" that I need to take care of her kind of hair!  So - the research was not for naught ~

- Isabella made a "pack" of love notes to give to a boy at her Friday camp.  Todd and I went through the little notes that were included in the package, then discussed with her that she couldn't give him ALL of the notes in the pack.  It was serious sounding -- I love you... will you marry me... etc?!  Eek.

- Mercer had to "try out" for advanced art for 8th grade.  He submitted a better self-portrait than the one he drew previously.  He worked pretty hard on this for many days in a row.  We were all happy with it!  I hope he gets into the class.  We won't know 'til later in the school year if he made it to 8th grade advanced art or not.  Fingers crossed he will!

(He drew this from a photo of himself taken on his 13th birthday.)  

Love it!!