Nerd Pride Radio

We were supposed to go visit family back in Indiana over the weekend, but decided to cancel. My dad turns 78 in a week or so, and recently had blood clots in his leg and lungs, so his immune system isn't the strongest right now. One sister is a county clerk in Michigan, and was exposed to who-knows-what during yesterday's primary. Another is a public school music teacher in suburban St. Louis. And we would have to drive the through Chicago, and gawds-only-know that the toll oases around Chicago are not the most hygienic under the best of circumstances.

UW-Madison has spring break next week, and has canceled face-to-face classes after spring break. They've recommended students not return to the dorms until April. My sister said U of Michigan has done the same thing. Shits getting serious. And yet Trump has announced he'll hold a rally in Milwaukee on March 19. And they called it Catholics for Trump, or something like that, which doesn't seem to be going over well with the local archbishop in Milwaukee.

My son is on spring break from Southern Illinois now and they just announced that they are extending break until March 22 (it was supposed to end after this weekend) to give the professors a chance to transition to online and they are going online until further notice. He is still driving back down tomorrow because he has to pay his rent, but we're encouraging him to come back here after he pays his rent because he will most likely not have a paying job for the foreseeable future as well since he works at a university call center and that will probably be shut down as well. I can't imagine they want a bunch of the students coming in and using headset phones in the same room together if they don't want classes going on. My daughter's community college is in a tougher spot. They CAN'T go online-only because it is a violation of their charter. In order to maintain their standing as a "Junior College", they have to offer a certain percentage of their courses in person and NOT online (or via correspondence I guess...). So if they have to do something, it will probably mean shutting down for the semester. She is 6 hours and 3 minutes from having the hours she needs for her "Field Experience" for her education class she's taking. The most she can get tomorrow is 2 or 2.5...

To add to the school things:

Tonight is now closing for the musical I'm playing at CU Boulder. It was supposed to be Sunday, but they canceled classes until after Spring break and have asked events with more than a certain number of people to rethink whether they are necessary or not.

I can't call this canceled gig #2 as they are still paying me for the full run. How ever Em had a Friday gig canceled, so our collective household is at 2.

The school system I work in is closing 2 schools for the rest of the week: someone who works at those schools has been in contact with someone who had traveled to one of the high-risk areas.

that the NBA is suspending its season.

Emergency meeting this morning before classes start. The principal emailed about it at about 11:00 last night. I wonder if it's because of the school district's first potential exposure to corona virus. Stay tuned . . .

The meeting was about informing us of the 2 schools that were closed (in case people didn't know), telling us the procedure for reporting potential exposures, and letting people know to keep business as usual until/unless something changes.

I don't know what we'll do if they close schools. It's county policy that we can't require students to do work on the internet at home--we have a lot of poor families, some of whom don't have internet access.

Maybe it's better to keep all the college students on campus and not let them go home to see their parents and grandparents until the peak infection curve passes! Then they can do their online video classes from the dorms where they all stay together. I am no epidemiologist but I have heard an epidemiologist suggest this so it's not a complete crazy talk. But it's only realistic for residential campuses, and most students in this country go to community colleges or work while going to school so it wouldn't work for them.

Most of the colleges are going to online after spring break, most likely to prevent the students who went home to god knows where from returning to campus with the virus.

Schools are out for two weeks at least. 1 student was tested and that is the reaction of the school board. They are supposed to do online work, but many do not have internet at home. I know we will be buying "tokens" for more data to accommodate this since we use satellite internet at home.

There is a case 10 miles away from us. She went to two separate ERs, but the state would not allow testing (this was last week) due to her symptoms not being severe enough. Finally a specialist demanded that she be tested and placed her in an isolation facility. Now they have contacted and tested all the people who were in the emergency rooms.

Our work outlook is not great. My engine line is for our 767 aircraft and now a lot of our customers are putting work on hold, not to mention our trans oceanic flights are minimal. Fortunately, other than lots of hand sanitizer and wipes our day to day operations remain unchanged.

My work might be impacted. We have several clients who, while not teaching staff, have offices at various university campuses that are closing. It is very possible that they will not be able to get to their offices and complete things on their end. In addition, we have one contract that involves shipping tests directly to schools, which would be testing around the end of next month and returning the data, that we would then process starting in early June. If public schools in the state in question end up being closed for an extended period I can't imagine that wouldn't impact the schedule, even if they reopen before the test window.

I AM SO PROUD OF THEM!

Who? Well the school board. They really impressed me. I have copied and pasted part of their email about kids in need:

Parents,
During the next two weeks, we want to make sure our students, especially those who qualify for free or reduced lunch, have access to meals. To that end, we will implement the following plan:
• From 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., daily (excluding weekends), the high school cafeteria will be open for breakfast and lunch "grab and go" meals.
• Every student, 18 years old or younger, is eligible to receive the free meals.
• You do not have to qualify for free/reduced lunch to receive the free meals.
• If transportation is an issue, please email your address to ...or you can call ...
Thanks, and please let us know if any questions.

David

It does me much good to see people caring for one another.

That is a great response. I'm not sure what my school district is doing.

That is amazing and fantastic!

my school district is closed, but from what I understood, they already served over 10000 hot meals to *all* childrens 18 and below, after only 2 days.