Has It Been Six Years?

      It's hard to believe that it's been six years already since our lives were thrown off kilter by Covid. Those were some scary times as the virus swept across the globe despite best efforts to keep it contained. I keep a daily journal and recently read my entries from that time. My notes reminded me of the sadness and helplessness we felt at times, but also of the strength and togetherness we experienced as well. Following are some of my journal entries beginning in March of 2020:

     (March 3) The coronavirus is spreading but not in Michigan yet . . . (March 6) Twenty one people on the cruise ship The Grand Princess have tested positive for the coronavirus. Could have been us three months ago when we sailed aboard that ship . . . (March 7) No handshakes or communal wine at church today. More coronavirus fall-out . . . (March 9) Italy is totally quarantined . . .(March 11) The virus has arrived in Michigan. St. Pats Day parade canceled. Ma called asking for no family visits right now. . . (March 12) Schools in Michigan closed for three weeks. Huge lines at Meijer's grocery store . . . (March 13) Coronavirus, AKA Covid-19, has closed the recreation center, the library, even masses at our church. We're not even allowed to return the DVD we borrowed from the library . . .

     (March 16) Michigan bars and restaurants are closing . . . (March 17) "Are you joking?" the Meijer checkout clerk said when we asked for hand sanitizer after using their pen to sign a check. . . (March 19) The dentist called to cancel next week's appointment. The state's reported Covid cases have tripled since yesterday . . . (March 23) Ordered postage stamps on-line, a first for me. Governor Whitmer has ordered us to shelter in place . . . (March 24) Senior hour at Meijer was a madhouse. My hopes that they would have hard-to-find items didn't come to pass. No toilet paper, no hand sanitizer, not even any isopropyl alcohol . . . (March 26) Nearly 3,000 Covid cases in Michigan with 92 in Washtenaw County. . .(March 29) T.P. at Busch's Valuland. Score! Successfully skyped with family in St. Louis. Another score! Dad says neighbor came by flashing hand signs asking if they need anything.

     (April 2) On a bike ride today I saw this message etched with chalk on the sidewalk--"In this together." . . . (April 4) CDC advises masks now. I saw people wearing masks as they jogged or rode bicycles. . .  (April 7) Over 12,000 Covid deaths in U.S. . . . (April 9) Governor extended her stay-at-home order until April 30th. It would have expired Monday. Wendy and I constructed Covid face masks . . . (April 12) A different Easter. Pork tenderloin dinner for just Wendy and me. We dropped off the grandboys' Easter baskets. Skyped with our other son's family in St. Louis. . . (April 13) Andrea Bocelli's Music for Hope concert was very moving. I watched the replay this morning . . . (April 17) Trump tweeted, "Liberate Michigan." But we're still in lockdown . . . (April 18) We finally got the face masks that cousin Vickie made for us. She mailed them two weeks ago

     April 20 Sad moment on my walk yesterday when I saw a couple standing in the grass outside a local nursing home trying to talk through the glass window to the resident within . . . (April 23) First live sports event in over a month--the NFL draft. . . (April 24) . . . Getting our daily Tim Horton coffee is hit or miss. In Saline, they're open till 2 p.m. In one Tim Horton's in Ann Arbor, they're open till 3 p.m. and the other Tim Horton is closed altogether . . . (April 26) Masks are mandatory when shopping now . . . (April 29) Our church called today to see if we're doing okay . . . ((May 5) One-way aisles for shopping at Meijer. No chicken yet--the meat industry has been hobbled by plant closures-- but hand sanitizer is there now. . . (May 7) Governor Whitmer has extended the stay-home order until May 23. . . (May 22) City Diner has breakfast take-out. Just opened. President Trump is ordering governors to let all churches open. The basketball rims were re-attached to backboards at the local park. They had been removed because of Covid to discourage playing

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How Many Books?

    Our local library is currently sponsoring a 1,000 books before kindergarten program. It's where families read books to their babies, toddlers or otherwise pre-schoolers in an effort to prepare them for kindergarten. That's where I come in as a volunteer to tutor kindergartners in reading.

    Teachers set up a desk in the hall and one-by-one the students come out and read from either a book the teacher has provided or a book that the student brings from home. I help them sound out words or give them encouragement as they learn the complexities of the English language.

    It sounds straightforward and often it is as the kindergartners know the drill. But every kid is different and I never know quite what to expect. After one kindergartner came out and took a seat at our shared desk, I push the assigned book in front of him and ask him to read.

    “No, you read it,” he said, pushing the book back at me. I did get him to eventually try reading but the book, which was scrounged up by a substitute teacher, turned out to be an advanced reader which the first few students struggled mightily to read. I eventually gave up and got a different book though students sometimes came out with their own books they brought from home.

    That should have made reading easier for kids.  Then one book a kindergartner pulled out described an insect called a “morpho butterfly.” I don't think morpho butterfly belongs in a beginning to read book for a number of reasons. One, the word morpho is not a word that you would encounter anywhere else as it only is ONLY used to describe the morpho butterfly. And the morpho butterfly is not even native to the United States though it can only be found in Central and South America.

    When I asked one boy to read, he announced, “I can't read. My mouth hurts.” That was a new one on me. I asked him to try though and he read fine. Another boy said he needed to finish quickly as the class right now was having playtime and he didn't want to miss all of that. I told him to try to read more quickly. He rolled his eyes and complained, “But the words are getting harder.”

    That wasn't true however as the book used pretty much the same words over and over. I did read a couple pages myself to help speed things along so he could get to playtime. Once in a while I'll get a student who is more interested in chatting that reading. One little girl started out by talking about the lunch her mother packed for her. Naturally I had to ask what she was having.

    She said her mother made her her favorite donuts, Arabic donuts. I thought I misunderstood what she was saying but there actually are Arabic donuts.  This little girl went on to say, "I can speak Japanese. But I can't do it today." That was fine as I had more students to help read.

       And the book the students all read the most had quite a few pages. One student after finishing leafed through the book and said, "I can't believe I readed all these pages." I guess that was a teachable moment. I could have explained the tenses involved with the word read. But I figured that was a lesson for another day and another senior volunteer.

Watching The Grands

      Taking advantage of one of the recent warmer days this winter, I built a snowman with my four-year-old grandson Lewis, using sticks for the arms, a milk bottle cap for the nose and a handful of pebbles to create the mouth and eyes. Then Lewis and I hiked to a nearby hill to try his sled. The hill wasn't steep enough to slide down so we came back to find the snowman toppled over and wrecked.

     I asked my six-year-old grandson Charlie what happened and he admitted that he and his older brother Davis had pushed him over. Why? I asked. “When I see a snowman I lose control of myself,” Charlie confessed.

     This was in the middle of Valentine's Day when we volunteered to watch the five kiddos of son Scott who with his wife was enjoying a trip to the theatre and lunch at a nearby brewpub. I thought we did okay babysitting the five who range in age from two to nine, four boys and a big sister. Nobody was injured, nothing was broken and that's the best you can expect in my book.

     Fisticuffs flew only once and, ironically, it was not from the rowdy boys but from big sister Gwen. Her brother Davis had absconded with a piece of Valentine candy she had gotten at school, the most serious crime in her book. She furiously chased him down and landed a couple good punches when she finally caught up to him, punches for which Mike Tyson would have given a thumbs-up. Davis surrendered the candy.

     Of all the kids, Davis instigates the most trouble. Ironically, he had his first reconciliation just a couple weeks ago at church. This is where you confess your sins. I figured Davis should have a pretty substantial list so I asked him if fighting with his brothers or sister was on his list of infractions. Surprisingly, he said, no. Disobeying his parents then? I figured that one would be there as well. Again, he said, no. So I straight up asked him what he confessed. “I almost robbed a toy store once,” he replied. OK, so I have to admit that would top his family squabbles.

     To provide some down time for everyone, we played the card game of “How Well I know My Family” where players take turns reading questions from a card they draw, come up with an answer, then see which family member can guess correctly. Charlie picked a card with the question, “What was the happiest day of my life?” We quickly guessed Christmas, birthdays, trips to Disney world, sleepovers, other celebrations but nobody guessed right. We finally gave up. Charlie said, “It was the day I met Davis.”

     Gwen pointed out that this occurred shortly after he was born so how would he remember that. Then Gwen picked a card. The question asked, “What type of potatoes are your favorite?” Knowing the kids love their McDonalds, Wendy said french fries. Nope. Since Gwen is always asking for potato chips at our house, I volunteered chips as the correct response. No again. Mashed potatoes? Tater tots? Hash browns? Nope. Then Davis said, “Potatoes with ketchup.” Gwen said that was right. I'd like a referees review to see if that's a legitimate response.

     Two-year-old Miles can't play this game as he's too young. But he's happy watching Baby Shark episodes on TV as he snacks, cookies being a favorite. I got him a big Spiderman cookie which he nibbled on. Knowing it would be too much for him, I asked if I could have a bite. “Nope,” he deadpanned. OK, how about just a little piece. “I said nope,” he replied. Somehow I think he copied a parents' response with his “I said no.”

     Their parents have some rules for what the kids can and can't eat. Or drink. Gwen found a partially full bottle of soda in the fridge and started drinking that. We know parents have issues with soda pop whether it's diet or not. So we asked her if she was permitted to drink that. “I can drink fizzy pop as long as it doesn't have caffeine.”

     Wendy checked and found out that the pop indeed contain caffeine. She warned Gwen that she would have trouble going to sleep now. “That's okay. I need to stay up to read for school,” she said.

     Thankfully, Wendy and I didn't have to deal with bedtimes as mom and dad came home before then. Now it was mine and Wendy's turn to hit the brewpub.

Off To See The Wizard

 

    The older I get, the more Michigan winters wear me down. I need a respite from the cold, ice and snow, even if just for a week or two. So last November I planned a road trip to the southwest, even purchasing tickets to see The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere in January. Some 2 million tickets have already been sold to this Las Vegas show so I figured it must be good. And I'd be away from Michigan in January.

    As soon as I purchased tickets on-line, I knew things might get tricky. I don't do today's technology well. I don't own a cell phone and the tickets required a cell phone to enter the Sphere to see the Wizard. These were expensive tickets too at over $200 each so I didn't want to screw up. I didn't even have a Ticketmaster account and you needed one.

    So I got a Ticketmaster account on my wife's cell phone and made sure our tickets were showing on there. As back-up, I printed out the tickets too even though I was warned that paper tickets would not be accepted. I booked a room at the Venetian Resort which has a covered bridge you can walk to get to the Sphere. Despite getting a new knee last year, my wife suffers pain if she walks moderate distances.

    We dodged the snowstorms that pummeled most of the country in January as the southwest was largely spared. After checking in at the Venetian, I saw signs right away that said the bridge to the Sphere was closed because of a convention. You had to head in the opposite direction, enter and leave another resort hotel, then go outside, reverse direction and walk quite a distance to get to the Sphere. Quite a walk. I don't think Dorothy walked this far to get to the Emerald City.

    I thought I'd ask at the Venetian customer service desk to see if there was an easier way to get there for the mobility impaired. You would have thought I was the Scarecrow asking the Wizard for a brain. “Do you need someone to push a wheelchair?” she asked. No! I just thought they might have a shuttle or something similar for their elderly guests. I should note here that Wendy and I sometimes feel like we're the oldest folk in these concert-type events.

    So we walked. And walked. There weren't even benches for us to sit and rest. Almost at the Sphere entrance, we got out Wendy's phone and tried to pull up our Ticketmaster tickets. We got to the Ticketmaster site, but then we got that spinning wheel image that indicated our Wifi access was stuck in a loop. The Sphere seats up to 20,000 guests and if many of them are also accessing their own Wifi, it can cause trouble for folks with less powerful cell phones, like our's.

    Still we got in line but our cell phone kept spinning its wheels even as we approached the ticket-taker. Do you ever hate it when you're in a long line of people and the person in front has an issue? I do too but this time I was that person. Having the paper tickets turned out to be a smart idea though as it proved we did have tickets. And after getting pulled out of line and passed on to a couple different more tech savvy people, we did access our tickets on our cell. And we were finally off to see the Wizard.

    Thankfully, the show was worth the effort. With the movie encapsulating you from all sides, you really felt you were there with Dorothy. Your seat shook when her house landed in Oz, apples dropped from the sky when trees hurled their fruit at Dorothy and company, and leaves blew through the theater when the tornado approached.

    Then we went to the San Diego Zoo and after that Tombstone, Arizona. We even hit a couple national parks along the way and pulled off a surprise visit to Wendy's sister whom we haven't seen in many years. But I do admit that after two weeks of bad coffee, occasional bad directions from our cell phone navigator, bad traffic and, yes, even bad weather I had to agree with Dorothy with one observation on her adventure. There's no place like home.

A Senior Xmas Carol

Yes Virginia there may be a Santa Claus

But it's been decades since he's visited my house

My wife is pushing seventy with me beyond

Just like those elders in On Golden Pond.

Christmas becomes different at our ripe old age

It's just another holiday, we but turn another page

It's been ages since I shopped a boutique or a mall

Everything's available on-line after all.

But trying to choose gifts now; it's so hard

We've come to rely on that staple—the gift card

And to come up with ideas for ourselves, please no

We already have so many things with no place to go

And that big family party we used to spearhead

We'd like to pass on to a son or wife now instead

We don't mind driving if not too far

As long as we don't go to some noisier bar

And remember that walking in winter for seniors can be dicey

Please shovel and salt so the walk won't be icy.

With the missus bad knee and my vision myopic

Falls at our age can be quite catastrophic

Yes, we put up a tree as we tried to decorate

But our sorry efforts this year were nothing to celebrate.

This season many lights and bobbles never emerged

To be honest, many are broken and need to be purged

And if some day we winter south please don't scold

Seniors our age can't handle the cold

Our warm wishes and cheer still will be spread

Even if our family Christmas is virtual instead.

Thankful For Little Things

     So what am I thankful for this Thanksgiving. Of course, there's always the obvious blessings . . . life, God, family, and health. And I am thankful for all these. But there are smaller things that I'm thankful for as well, mostly thankful for anyway.

    I enjoy my Kanopy streaming service on our television. It's a free and most importantly totally commercial free way to watch full-length movies. OK so the movies aren't always in English and the movies can be a bit strange, like the movie I just watched this past week. Mother was a Korean movie about a middle aged woman living with her adult mentally challenged son. He is charged with murdering a young Korean woman and the man's mother does everything she can to prove his innocence. She finally finds a witness who confirms that it was indeed her son who killed the woman. The mother brutally beats the witness to death with a pipe wrench and in the end, both mother and son end up going free when an even more mentally challenged fellow confesses wrongly to killing the young woman. The movie ends with the mother dancing on a bus with fellow senior citizens. As I said the movie was strange with subtitles but still better than watching a half hour of commercials.

    Something else I'm thankful for is that we recently got caller ID on our landline telephone. So now do we always know who's calling? Absolutely not. The telemarketers almost always mask themselves by putting in a fake phone number and location. So we get calls from Romulus, Livonia, Whitmore Lake, even calls that our caller ID said were coming from the Lost Peninsula and Scotland Neck, NC. But if we ever answer, the voice on the other end drones “Hello” and we know it's this particular telemarketer who wants to sell us an extended warranty on our car. So now we know not to answer those calls. OK, except once the caller was identified as “Therapy staff.” Now that sounded possible given the number of doctors appointments we have that “therapy staff” could be somebody important. I answered and heard the familiar “Hello” coming from that same telemarketer.

    Finally, I've always enjoyed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Ever since I was a kid a good PB&J was my go-to meal. I was thankful that as I grew up, if I didn't like the dinner my mother prepared, she said I could always have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead. These days picking out an unusual jelly is a real treat. I even put some on my Christmas list—thimbleberry, gooseberry, huckleberry, lingonberry and others. While in Shipshewana, home to an Amish community in Indiana, I bought blueberry hibiscus jam. Worst jam ever. It had a terribly bitter aftertaste. It's languishing in my refrigerator as I speak. So I'm thankful for peanut butter and jelly, so long as the jelly isn't blueberry hibiscus.

What Would Dan Do?

     What would Dan Campbell do? For those unaware, Dan Campbell is the head coach of the Detroit Lions who has impressed his fans with his team management.

    I have five six grandsons who all play football right now. Only my youngest who is two years old doesn't play. My second youngest, Lewis, turned four years old in May and now plays flag football. His dad, my son Scott, is coach.

    Both my wife and I wondered how Lewis would do playing football. He's not great at following directions, he certainly doesn't understand the rules that govern football, and he is prone to major temper tantrums. But his dad would be the coach and his older brother would be on the team too, so Scott hoped all would be well.

    Lewis embraced the chance to play on a football team. He put on his team jersey many days right after school. He smiled as mom took a photo of him complete with his uniform, wearing his belt with his yellow football flags attached. Afterall, this would be flag football.

    But then Lewis said something that raised another type of flag, a red flag. “If someone takes my flag,” he told his dad, “I'm not going to play.” His dad, the coach, explained that in flag football, someone taking your flag is part of the game. But Lewis repeated, “If someone takes my flag, I'm not going to play.”

    Lewis was still very excited to be playing football. He showed up at his parents' bedside at 4:30 in the morning on opening day. “Football,” he announced to his mom when she was awakened. . That's how excited he was to play. And the first couple games went fine. He was proud of the touchdowns he said he scored though he really had run out of bounds. But since nobody had taken his flag, it was a touchdown in his mind.

    Then his dad the coach had to go out of town and the assistant coach had to manage the game this past weekend. When Lewis got his turn running the ball, he ran out of bounds again to avoid getting his flag pulled. He continued going out of bounds all the way to the end zone.

    When the teams assembled for the next play, I saw Lewis talking to the referee, almost certainly telling him that he scored a touchdown. I saw the referee responding back to Lewis, almost certainly telling him that he ran out of bounds. I could have told the referee something that I've known for quite a while. You are not going to win any arguments with Lewis. In fact, when Lewis came to the sidelines he told us that he indeed had scored a touchdown.

    Then in the game's waning moments, it happened. Lewis was handed the ball and before he could run to the sideline, somebody pulled his flag. Lewis threw a full blown tantrum, falling to the ground, kicking and screaming. Neither the coach nor the referee could console him. The tantrum continued.

    I saw the coach look pleadingly to the sidelines for help as that's where his mother and both grandfathers were sitting. But we stayed put. I'm sure Dan Campbell in his coaching days had learned how to manage a misbehaving player. So here's a similar teachable moment for the assistant coach.

       And it got worse. When Lewis wouldn't at least get up and go to the sideline, his teammates started heading to the sidelines themselves. The game clock was ticking too. When the coach tried to coax his players back onto the field, only a couple responded, the others taking a rest or a water break.

    Again, I'm thinking Dan Campbell would know what to do when his players decide to take an unscheduled mid-game break. Lewis's coach took a time-out. Good call. We got Lewis off the field and, true to his word, he said he quit. Fortunately, it was almost the end of the game anyway so it didn't matter.

    My son Scott will be home for Lewis's next game. Will he be able to coax Lewis back onto the field? To be honest, knowing my grandson, I'm not even sure Dan Campbell could talk him back onto the field. We'll see.