Covid-19, Day 16: First Day of School

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Ed starts almost every breakfast with these. I love how bright green they get when you steam them. He cooks them with a bit of bacon and eats them with eggs.

Freshly steamed brussel sprouts

I'm watching Jonas attend his first online class. It is so entertaining! The kids haven't seen each other for two weeks (exactly two weeks) and they are hyper. Most of them have gaming headsets on with a boom mic. Jonas does not have a camera and doesn't want one, but we have ordered it nevertheless. I hope he's learning something.

Jonas attends his first online class

If Jonas looks frustrated, it's because he was. The teacher did not have a microphone and the kids (50 had signed on) were out of control, all talking at once despite instructions to mute all mics at the beginning of class. I think it will take a few days for them to work out their energy and settle down to this new learning mechanism. Noteworthy to mention that he completed his science assignment before 8:30 am.

Gill is still sleeping. His classes will resume next Monday. Not sure why it is so delayed.

This guy lives right above my monitor. We have ants in our "office" so I'm keeping him around to do his job.

Ocho, my 8-legged co-worker

I went down a rabbit hole on genealogy. It started with an email from ancestry.com which indicated that several "buddy" sites would be free during the stay-at-home order. One of them was a military site with records based in St. Louis. I submitted a request for my father's navy records, and was trying to submit one for my grandfather but encountered some challenges. Apparently, there was a tragic fire in the 1970's that destroyed 80% of the military records during the period of his service. Dexter asked that I request the records for one of our ancestors, Alcin Vidrine, who served in the Civil War. He was captured in Illinois and it took him a year to walk home. This caused me to turn to my ancestry tree to add Alcin. I followed threads leading to his parents: Antoine Vidrine and Josephine Ortego. From there, I discovered that our family is linked to many other trees that show a common ancestor, Jean-Baptiste Pierre Lapaise de Védrines, who emigrated from southwest France. His ancestors had moved from Massif in south Central France to the southwestern region of Agen. There was a chateau in the family, which was later sold. It was, and is still, a winery.

Chateau Doisy-Védrines Winery

But I digress. Back to Jean-Baptiste. He was an officer with the Royal French Navy, and sailed to the North American territory (current-day U.S.) in 1743. He was stationed in Illinois and married his commander's daughter, Elizabeth Tisserand de Monchervaux in 1758. When Jean-Baptiste retired in 1763, he and Elizabeth sailed down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, settling at Point Coupee Post. Eight years later, they moved near Bayou Courtableu north of Washington, La. Since they were in Spanish territory, the spelling of their name was changed to Vidrine. We are the descendents of Jean-Baptiste and Elizabeth's son Etienne Vidrine (dit Lapaise) and his wife, Victoire Soileau. Together, they had 14 children!

Needless to say, it took many hours to travel down that rabbit hole. So I pulled myself out to tend to the kids, clean the kitchen, etc.

Turning to news of the day. So this guy, Mike Parson. There are two major cities in Missouri. Both mayors of those two cities have issued a stay-at-home order, but this has not been reinforced at the state level. In fact, the governor (at the press conference photographed below) encouraged people to rely on personal responsibility. Yes, I understand that we have rural areas that might not need a stay-at-home order, but I was hoping for greater clarity from our top level state leadership. Something similar is happening in Texas. The mayors formed a coalition and created their own framework because the governor refused to act, saying it was a local matter. The coalition covered more than 70% of the state. I find this phenomena very, very interesting. We are experiencing such a fractured system of government right now.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R)

In Kansas City, a group of business and civic leaders gathered to solve the testing issue. It's near-to-impossible to get tested locally due to the dearth of tests. They got on the phone, figured out who made the tests and discovered that one of manufacturers had 50,000 tests sitting in a warehouse in San Jose. They bought those tests, shipped them to Kansas City, partnered with local hospitals and labs, and will deploy them shortly.

Another local group of business and civic leaders created a pool of donations (aiming to equal $10 million) and have issued a call for requests to area nonprofits who provide basic needs / food & shelter relief to area residents.

Watching people solve problems bigger than they are, work together to create solutions that are unique and innovative (see above), create acts of kindness that are relevant and truly helpful (the restaurants that provide free lunch for laid-off waitstaff, the thousands of people sewing re-usable face masks that have filters) and show patience + concern for others has been one of the unexpected joys in this ordeal.

In the news:

• 492,603 cases, 22,184 deaths, 119, 918 recovered
• 356 cases in Missouri, 8 deaths
• 128 cases in Kansas, 3 deaths
• Dow Jones closes at 21,188
• $2 trillion relief plan passed unanimously by the Senate that will:
• One-time direct payments of $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for families
• Increase in unemployment benefits
• $500 billion in loans or investments 
• $25 billion to airlines and $4 billion for cargo carriers
• $17 billion in loans for businesses critical to maintaining national security
• $117 billion in hospitals and veteran healthcare
• $16 billion for stockpile of medical supplies
• $350 billion in loans to small business
• Tax credit for retaining employees
• Group health plan required to provide preventive services related to Covid-19
• Delay in payroll tax for employers
• Bar employees or executives who made at least $425k last year from getting a raise
• Stop Pres, VP, heads of Exec Depts, members of Congress + their families from receiving emergency taxpayer relief. 
• Suspend federal student loan repayment until 9/30 without interest accrual