New Year's Eve.../02
A quiet afternoon. Cindy is napping, Mother Thomas is helping Joe cut vegetables for supper & Maxine is making sure the ham is ready for basting. Andy is taking a nap; doing the 4 am to 8 am is tiring, I'm sure. We're going to double up tonight for 'guard duty'. It IS New Year's & in spite of or perhaps because of the curfew, we'd rather be safe than sorry. Sam is running some laundry & plans to clean my rifles for me later. The kids are doing some homework, some English work that I assigned them this morning. It's not too hard for Sammy. He had to pick a picture book & look through it. He has my old, small portable cassette tape recorder & is to 'tell' the story as best he can. After that, he's to practice printing his letters. Annette offered to help him with some letter sounds after she finished the novel questions I assigned her. I have her reading the Little House on the Prairie series. Funny, she'd never read them & loved the book once she started it this morning. She kept running in with new 'ideas' of how we could do things the old fashioned way. She was almost disappointed we didn't have a hog to butcher!
Mother Thomas is a God send. When Sammy & the kids get restless, she has all sorts of wonderful stories to tell them. She has clear recollections of visiting HER grandparents as a child. They ran a small, mixed farm & she remembers the plough horses being harnessed & learning to milk cows by hand. The kids are learning a new appreciation for our modern conveniences. I wonder how long we'll be able to keep most of them. We had a very short power failure this morning. Maxine was in a panic, afraid she wouldn't be able to get her ham in. Sam is going to spend part of tomorrow trying to cobble together an 'oven' out of whatever he can scrounge from the attic, garage & basement.
Maxine ended up putting the ham in earlier than she usually does, in case the power goes off again. Here's hoping it won't! Oh we can cook on the woodstove & fireplace if we have to, but a modern oven is easier.
Once morning chores were done, we all sat together & discussed the situation & talked about ways we can conserve what we have. Much to the boys' delight, baths are down to once a week for the kids. Adults will be limited to a 5 minute shower every other day, unless they get really filthy doing something related to keeping up the house. I'm concerneed we might be keeping the heat too low for Mother Thomas' comfort. The chemotherapy melted the weight off her & she's been slow to put any back on. She's not complained about being cold, but she obviously is. In spite of her protests, the most comfortable recliner was dragged nearer the fireplace, so she can stay warm. Cindy is crocheting her an afghan specifically for the chair & Anne made sure she had enough blankets on her bed. We'll make sure the warming pan spends some time in the bed before she goes down for the night. We've been trying to keep the bedroom doors closed to save on heat, but hers will stay open in hopes that more heat gets in there from the living room.
I'm concerned about water. I have enough containers I can fill in a pinch & may actually start doing that later today. Trouble is, where do I keep them? I suppose we'll simply put them anywhere there's room. I have a number of collapsible 10 gallon plastic water containers & some plastic barrels. Being as it's winter, there's no shortage of snow we can melt, but that's a lot of work & will rob the house of heat. If things get much worse, if we start losing water pressure & running out of snow, there's a pond in that back field. I think I can find it under the snow. Wish I still had my old ice auger...
I've been busy putting together lesson plans for the kids. Sammy won't be difficult as he's just in kindergarten, but Greg is in second grade & Annette, fifth. I worry about being able to teach them well enough. I'm used to scowling adolescents, not elementary aged kids! Still, I have the others to help me & everything about this crisis can be seen, sort of, as a learning situation. Local media ia also proving useful; more on that later. Maxine told the 2 older kids they were going to learn to help prepare meals; they can both peel vegetables & certainly Annette can learn some simple meals.
Funny, I'm used to having the house to myself in the evenings, as is Anne. Even though this is my own, beloved family, I find they're starting to get on my nerves. We spoke about that today; about how tough it is to be in "each other's face" everyday like this. I reminded everyone that the dining room is a "quiet corner" & anyone in there is looking for a peaceful bit of time. The kids haven't been great about letting the adults alone when they go in there! I think Maxine solved that. She took a couple of old blankets & my staple gun & sectioned off that dead space at the end of the hall. She put an old, plump cushion down & plugged in a lamp. That's the kids' 'quiet corner'. She even wrote a sign say: "occupied". I made sure the kids understood that they couldn't use needing the 'quiet corner' as an excuse for getting out of their chores! Right now, they're taking turns, 15 minutes at a time, getting 'needed' quiet time!!!
I have started building that second wooden box to use as frozen food storage. It is pretty much going to use up all my available plywood & 2 x 4s though. Thnak God I have lots of fire wood. Anne thought I was nuts last summer when I bought 4 full cords. It was a lot of splitting & stacking, but am I glad now. It nicely augments the 5 face cords I have & will keep us warm enough should the electricity go out. Wish we'd converted to oil, but if it's bad enough for electricity to go, I don't imagine they'd be able to deliver heating oil either.
When we went to the store the other morning, it was worrisome to see the store shelves. A lot of things were already running short. We stocked up on extra toilet paper, ketchup, my favorite steak sauce, (I put in on darned near everything) & as much pasta as we were allowed to take each. Anne had left a list of seasonings & Sam took care of picking up most of those. Joe picked up a case of infant formula. I know Cindy isn't due for 6 months & she's planning to breast feed, but you never know what's going to happen. I grabbed some packages of cheap socks on sale, as did Andy. We got rice, tomato paste & our limit of 2 pounds of butter each. We already have quite a stockpile of vegetable oil. We also grabbed powdered milk & powdered eggs; dreadful things but useful in cooking.
It was sad watching people who obviously had nothing at home, except for a few days' worth of food trying to get around the rationing. You could buy 10 pounds of potatoes for each household member & no more than 10 pounds of rice or pasta. Canned vegetables were rationed to 5 cans per family member. About the only things not rationed were pickles, pickled anything, some of the more unusual condiments & salad dressings. The store had imposed its own rationing on top of what the government was mandating. Early in the day, someone tried to clean them out of foil wrap, literally clearing the shelf. The store has limited quantities to 2 rolls per person shopping.
The bitterest arguments with store clerks occured over coffee, tea & sugar. One jar of coffee, one package of tea & a maximum of 5 pounds of sugar each. Thank the good Lord I have lots of that stores away. We picked up some boxed cereals, but the kids will soon have to get used to 'real' breakfasts. I've never bothered storing much of that sort of cereal. We have lots of oatmeal, the fixings for pancakes & scrambled eggs & that old 'favorite'; Red River cereal.
There were a few news conferences today. The President was on this morning; live for the first time in days. The man looks worn out, barely under control. He stated cases nationally were now approaching a million with no end in sight. That struck me as a huge jump, but he 'explained' that a number of states, especially those with larger populations, had been running behind in their reporting. Nationwide, vaccination is stumbling along with about 45% of the population having now been vaccinated. It's to be hoped that slows down the rate of transmission, as does mandated isolation. It seems too many are still leaving their homes unecessarily, especially in the inner cities. Some of the poorer areas of large cities, Baltimore, Washington, NWY, LA, Miami & others are doing badly. Huge numbers of cases & little co-operation with the authorities. Certain neighbourhoods of south LA are so bad, even the police are refusing to enter. National Guard troops & armored vehicles are being used to transport people needing to go to hospital, to deliver supplies to grocery stores & to pick up the sick & dead. Many cities have asked people to hang a white towel or sheet if a sick person needs to be taken in to a care center & a blue or green sheet or towel to have the dead picked up. A few helicopter camera shots from different towns show a lot of the latter hung from windows & on doors.
More fields are being dug up & the ominous sight of reefer trucks being loaded at the back of hospitals in now showing on the news. The Presidnet waffled over the count of dead, but from what I could gather, it's over 350 thousand. Not surprising to see it climbing. As more get sick, more of the first cases are losing the battle.
The CDC also spoke, encouraging public tv stations & local radio stations to put out programs teaching people how to care for themselves & families if need be. They have established yet more hot lines to report the ill, the dead & anyone with questions about symptoms. They discouraged people from using the hot lines to tote cures, preventatives or to harangue staffers for having somehow caused this outbreak.
Department of Defence spoke as well. They've been in touch with the states'governors & were passing the message to all citizens away from home, who were members of their states' national guard, to please contact the National Guard in the state where they were visiting. Many troops, both regular force, reserve & National Guard are ill & there's so man tasks they're needed for. Joe is still trying to get through to the armory here. Cindy is NOT happy, but the boy knows his duty. Hopefully, he'll be stationed here in town & can come home periodically; if they want him. Our local unit is an combat engineer brigade & Joe's home unit is military police. Still, I can't imagine them turning him away; there's more than enough policing work & guard duty to do.
I was hoping to hear our men & women overseas were coming home, but no questions wsere permitted & all that was said on that matter was that, they were being kept very busy 'looking after American interests". The types of contact families became used to after 9/11 when family members deployed; the satellite phones & e mail; isn't happening this time. There has been a deep, deep silence from those abroad. I hope & pray they're all well.
The stock markets, commodities exchanges & all livestock markets remain closed. Farmers with animals ready for the slaughterhouse have phone numbers to contact & have been told their stock will be picked up as soon as possible. The farmers, upon hearing payment would come at an unspecified "later date", are refusing to turn over their animals. Grain farmers with full silos are also insisting on payment, in cash, on the spot before their crops are removed. A small farming community in Kansas has barricaded their town, refusing entry to anyone except for a local ABC news crew. They don't trust that payment will be made & aren't happy with the amounts per pound of animal or bushel of grain they've been told to expect. It's getting ugly They've announced THEIR prices & have said they'll deal... at the barricades, wtih anyone who shows up with cash, a truck & a livestock carrier. Other than that, no deal. The governor is having fits & has threatened "imminent action" if the farmers don't "Start thinking of their civic duty". Ominously, several military trucks were filmed gathering a few miles away before the cameraman was hustled away from the site & his film seized. We'll have to take his word for what he saw... no film is available, obviously.
Some local tv stations have decided to leave outbreak coverage to the networks & are instead, offering childrens' programming & documentaries. One station is giving shortened lectures for high school students, covering the major topics of math, English & science. The school districts locally, as well as many others across the nation are putting lectures online. Another station is doing elementary school classes. They're only able to do an hour a day for each of the eight grades, but are repeating these lectures for parents to tape in the evening & suggesting activities to do at home to help children keep up to date. They explained it is the Christmas holidays, but the duration of this crisis was unknown & it's difficult to keep children entertained all day. They might as well be learning. In the evenings, The Learning Channel has been running programs for parents, giving good ideas on explaining the crisis to kids & giving parents suggestions for specific problems they may be running into. I'm impressed, as is Maxine.
A very chastened Annette askeed to speak to everyone after lunch. She had a tough time speaking, guess she's embarrassedd by the spanking & is feeling pretty humiliated. She apologized to everyone for trying to steal extra food & offered to not have any dessert at all for the next week to make up for it. As glad as I was to hear her apologize & make that offer, I put my foot down. It's important to eat & the women have been whipping up some pretty good treats with canned fruit. Annette is getting taller all the time & needs her food, as do we all. We're all working harder. Instead, I offered to give her a half hour's worth of extra chores for a week & we settled on that compromise.
I guedss it's hard to really get it through the kids' head what's going on. They're so used to seeing disasters on tv that I suspect it may not seem real to them. Disasters happen "elsewhere". The kids 'know' we have a lot of cases here, but they really don't know anyone here in town except us, Joe & Louise, so the illnesses & deaths have no personal meaning; there's no connection there. Annette wanted to call her best friend, but we're still being asked to limit phone calls to absolutely essential calls. Maxine is friends with the girl's mother & did have an e mail address. Annette had to be satsified with an e mail & is eagerly awaiting a reply.
Anne will be home tomorrow, for 48 hours. I hated seeing her head off to work late this morning. Everytime I talk to her now or kiss her good bye, I pray it isn't for the last time, for whatever reason. She's doing tough, tough work & I'm humbled by her strength. The kids, MY kids & their spouses are understanding about my need to spend time alone for her & have been outstanding about respecting our privacy. Bless them. They do a pretty good job of making sure grandma & grampa get their time alone too; no matter how badly the kids feel they need to speak to us!
We have a New Year's Eve tradition here that we've carried out every year since Anne & I were married. After dinner, once the dishes are cleared up & the kitchen cleaned up, we gather in the living room & every person in turn gets a chance to stand up, (or sit if they choose) & talk about the past year. They can tell us what was the most significant thing that happened to them that year; the best thing, the worst thing & any special blessings they recieved. They then tell us what they hope for the coming year, both personally & on a larger scale. The kids always managed to surprise us when they were younger. Mother Thomas had an excellent suggestion. She'd like me to set up the video camera & let everyone have their say "on tape". I think it's an excellent suggestion, although how significant these tapes could become causes a lump in my throat I can't get rid of.
On that note, time to get back to the family. It sounds as though dinner is almost ready & I want to make sure the kids are set to come to the table on time. It IS New Year's Eve & I have a special treat for everyone. Thank goodness Louise & Joe were able to help with this surprise.
