Quarantine journals - chill and fold

Today wasn't exactly an exciting day compared to some of the other days we've had. I was up until nearly 3 AM unable to sleep between the pain that is coming back on the left side of my ribs, the pain in my finger, and general anxiety. Also factor in the fact that I am never alone and never off duty now… Sometimes it's hard to go to sleep when 2 AM is the first time that I've been able to just sit and do nothing. I play some animal Crossing which helps me relax, but once I get into bed, my brain is still searching for something else. It's really annoying because I would like to be sleeping.

On the school front, penny's social studies assignment was to identify some things she could help with around the house for a reward because they are studying jobs in earning money. So we gave her the choice of helping me with laundry or helping Richard pick up the house, and the "payment" that she requested was one hour of video games. Once we got her schoolwork finished up, we went outside and free styled it in the nice weather. It was windy, and cool. The fresh air was nice, and the kids did lots of running.  After all of her started affectionately hugging and rubbing his hands all over the telephone pole in between our house and the neighbors, I had to bring them in so that we could wash them up, change his clothes, and quell my anxiety.

The afternoon was spent folding and putting away mountains of laundry, and Penny's super dedicated assistance was much appreciated. I could tell that Richard was in a funk today as well. When I checked in with my dad, he said everything that was going on was weighing heavily on his mind too.  

The CDC has FINALLY come out with a recommendation that people should wear masks in public.  Only a few months and thousands of lives later, it's nice to see that they might actually be on the right page. I know they avoided it to begin with because they were afraid people were going to hoard medical supplies, but with the rapid spread of the virus due to poor leadership in the beginning, and the hoarders who are going to hoard no matter what, medical supplies are already scarce.  It took me several days to even locate a cheap oral thermometer to send to the office, and I happened upon that only at a medical supply place. They are requiring that all of the workers take their temperature at home and text it to us before they come into the office, and take it again once they come in the office so we can then text it to the superintendent before they are allowed on the job site. It's good that they're taking things seriously, but it also seems stupid since a lot of people are getting the virus and are asymptomatic or fever free.  Also these jobs could wait. 

Now they will need masks at work as well, and those certainly don't exist anywhere.

I pulled out the tutorial that everyone's been passing around for sewing masks, and I'm hoping that in a couple of days between my hand healing and maybe my ribs going back to healing, I'll feel up to actually getting started on sewing some for the crew. I don't know if I mentioned it yesterday or not, but one of the men that Richard works with went to go get tested for covid two days ago. Richard told him to stay home until he gets the results in, and so I guess were waiting to see what happens then.

We had a low-key dinner, and then Penny and Richard played some Minecraft before bed. He's going to take some time off tomorrow and plan on going into the office on Saturday again. Which means that I need to come up with some fun activities on Saturday to help Oliver work through the emotions of having Richard leave the house again. I'm working on it, but I need sleep.  I'm really running on empty. I'm starting to work on different ways that we can still make Easter special here as well. All of the Easter goodies on animal crossing seem to be helping getting everyone in the Easter spirit, and hopefully will make it seem even more exciting despite the fact that we can't leave the house or see my dad.

Penny was super excited to share with her teacher about our movie outside yesterday and how it was the best day ever.  Days like that we just have to put in our pocket and hope they can carry us through the week. Despite the fact that she got very little sleep last night, she was in an excellent mood today. She woke up at 7 AM regardless of the late bedtime because her top tooth fell out.  I asked her to try and go back to sleep, but it was just a bit too much excitement for her.

Anyway, I'm saying lots of things without much to say. It's just another day moving forward, but the death toll is climbing and the anxiety is high. Things are tense, and it's hard to be on social media watching people make April fools jokes about Texas students having to repeat this grade or call everything a hoax because, well, our president said those exact words in the beginning. Imagine all the people that would still be alive if he had taken it seriously and acted aggressively  the minute China was overtaken with illness.