Who can remember where you were and what you did one year ago today?

[kimbutgar]

I was in Disneyland for the first of a three day visit celebrating my husbands birthday. It was crowded, long lines and surprisingly warm for March 11th. That night back at our hotel, we were watching the news and they were discussing the pandemic like it really serious for the first time. The next day it was pouring rain and we got soaked and left the park. And the last day it was open it was very stressful knowing that there was this infectious virus, not crowed and people were scared especially the cast members.

[we can do it]

1. On way to Ohio for my colonoscopy.

[LizBeth]

2. I was in an hotel checking people in from Ca and Wa, in a very small unventilated room.

We had a concert that was filling the hotel to capacity and I was dreading it the more I learned abut the virus. I had already been obsessively washing hands and backing away from people for a good couple weeks. The 14th at 2pm the Gov said everything was shut down. That was the day of the concert and was desperate the concert had been canceled. It had by the time I got to work at 3pm. People were canceling all over the place and continued canceling thru out the day for future reservations. At that point, I suggested to bosses that I stay home until all this shook out and business increased. Still not working.

[kimbutgar]

7. The hotel we stayed at in Disneyland when we checked out on the 14th had very glum looking

Employees. A little girl in the evaluator was crying her trip to Disneyland had been cancelled.

[LizBeth]

9. Earlier we had started taking precautions disinfecting pens, wiping down counters and puters,

phones. Most people were right their in the precaution. Lots were already wearing masks and using hand sanitizers.

[House of Roberts]

3. I was on my third day of day shift

after my company moved us all from second to day shift. Then on Monday the 16th, they laid off all but three of us.

[dem4decades]

4. On the beach in Aruba trying to figure out what was happening.

[GregariousGroundhog]

5. My last day working in the office was Friday the 13th

I was busy that day. Instead of buying lunch and eating in the cafeteria like I normally do, I brought my plate back to my desk. I forgot to return it to the cafeteria, and so that plate is still sitting on my desk. I guess it is a good thing I finished all my food.

[Jimbo S]

6. Very much so

so much that I documented it with text and pictures for my COVID journal project that I submitted to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

I was in Madison for the day. Swam a few laps at the Natatorium. Went to the student union to grab some lunch, read and chill. I noticed a low-level buzz as news started to trickle in about classes, spring breaks et al being adjusted. Then home at night as sporting events were being cancelled.

[madwivoter]

8. With my brother at Rochester Mayo

While I was there I got word from my employer that we were shutting down and working from home. Stayed an extra day with my brother (on advice from nurses) because they were going to start prohibiting visitors. That was the last time I saw him until October of 2020. Came home, scrambled into the office to get hardware, been wfh since.

[Binkie The Clown]

10. I wrote the number "1" on my calendar marking the first day of personal lock down.

This morning I wrote "365" on the calendar.

[Tree Lady]

11. I wrote on my calendar March 8 2020

Last time out in public with friends no masks. Nothing a year ago just staying home. My area was slow to get virus but once it did spread pretty fast. So in the beginning not quite as scared.

[Auggie]

12. Nursing a cold, getting ready for the county shelter-in-place order on the 12th

Had just returned from Hawaii. I thought it was the Sars-COV-2 virus at first. It was very un-common cold like.

[Tommy Carcetti]

13. Not specifically today, but I remember the last normal weekend.

Went up to visit my parents. Ate lunch at the very last Sweet Tomatoes I would ever eat at. (RIP Sweet Tomatoes) Saw a group of manatees in the wild. Had breakfast in a crowded diner. Felt a little nervous when I saw the person serving our food sneeze. Went to the last mass I attended in person. Saw lots of people on the Florida Turnpike heading down to a music festival in Okeechobee. Remember feeling a little bit annoyed that the gas station I had stopped at was out of soap in the rest room because I was already hearing a lot about this virus.

The weekend before that I remember taking my kids out to dinner at a crowded BBQ place, walking around the crowded shopping area with them, going home and laughing my ass off at John Mulaney on SNL (with David Byrne as the musical guest) and feeling generally good about things because Joe Biden had just won the South Carolina primary and that meant there was finally a chance at getting Donald Trump out of office and returning to normal.

[MoonlitKnight]

14. Watching all of the basketball tournaments get cancelled

Then when the NBA did so I made what would be my last trip to WalMart to stock up for what I expected to be about six weeks at home.

[Raftergirl]

15. My last day pre self isolation

was March 10. I went to my yoga class and met a friend after for coffee. I had already beeen quite nervous and aware of the coming storm as we went to a bat Mitzvah out of town on the 7th - very close to where the first outbreak in NY was announced. I refused to kiss or hug anyone and got poo-pooed - with everyone saying you just couldn’t shake hands. I knew then that if my family was indicative of the rest of the country we were in for a world of hurt.

By the end of that week my tennis club was shut down, yoga classes shut down, and everyone began WFH.

Tomorrow I get my first vaccine shot. Can’t wait. It’s been a long year.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

16. I worked my last day in the office

And spent the afternoon running around trying to find a 50' Cat6 cable so we could hook up my wife's work computer as well.

[MissB]

17. WFH

We were just shifting to WFH and I was already there. I had checked out of the office the week before. I’d argued that we shouldn’t be cramming our staff in a small meeting room, so I attended the meeting via phone because we just weren’t on top of things yet. I was happy to be the odd person out.

[tinrobot]

18. A year ago this week - rode the LA Marathon course at 4AM with 1000 other people.

It's called the Marathon Crash ride and started as a semi-legal bike race about 10 years ago. It's the one time you can ride across LA with no traffic. Loads of fun.

My wife and I started a tradition of riding it 8 years ago and it's become "our thing" because it happens near our anniversary. Last year, we did the ride, rode back on the subway (maskless), then had breakfast at a cafe while we watched the marathon pass by. Looking back, it was a little reckless to do that, but we didn't quite know what was going down.

The lock down hit right after that weekend. It was the last time we got to hang out in public that way.

[demtenjeep]

19. I was teaching school. We watch CNN Student News so we had been watching the growing concerns

on March 13 was our last student day. Blake Shelton was the concert at the Arena and the new park across the street was supposed to have a grand opening on the 14th. I said goodbye to my students for Spring break. Not knowing it was going to be for a year. On March 14 the decision was made to shut down.

We got to go in 2 people at a time for 1 hour to get what we needed to "teach" 4th quarter.

no grand opening at the park and everything shut down

[CRK7376]

74. We pretty much knew something bad was

headed our way and out of an abundance of caution I took home all my American History class materials in case....Did Remote for the rest of the semester, Seniors had a drive by graduation in June. August 3rd the system threw the Canvas Learning Platform at us and told us we had 3 weeks to learn it and be ready to use it in remote learning for the new school year. That was monsterously painful trying to learn a new program and put it all together for students. This old dinosaur is not good with tech and Canvas was doing all it could to kill me off. I've survived Canvas but it's been very painful, the there is the pain of Zoom and MS Teams......Just let the school year end and with luck return to something more normal next fall.....

[CrispyQ]

20. On March 7 I had a doctor's appointment.

I'd heard about the virus & they had already reported a confirmed case in a ski resort town (CO). Our grocery store had been offering shopping/pickup service for some time, so I finally signed up. On our way back from the doctor, we picked up our first order, including our first ever 12-pack of toilet paper. My husband teased me about that, but three weeks later you couldn't find TP anywhere.

What a frickin' year.

[Kaleva]

21. I was home babysitting a child who just turned 1.

I'm babysitting him today and he turned 2 today.

He was 4 days old when I first babysat him.

[smirkymonkey]

79. How do you babysit your own child?

If he's your child, you are parenting him, not babysitting.

[robbob]

80. Where did they say it was their own child?

Confused. Babies 4 days old can be babysat by someone who knows babies...

[Kaleva]

86. I'm a 62 year old guy and I'm good at babysitting

Most of the kids I babysit are my grandchildren age less then 1 to 6. The child I was talking about in my previous post is the son of a young friend of my wife's who works at a local restaurant.

[Kaleva]

85. Where did I say the child was mine?

[smirkymonkey]

88. Sorry, I misread your post.

[Kaleva]

90. No problem!

He knows me so well, the little guy calls me "Papa!" even though I'm no relation.

Have a good evening!

[smirkymonkey]

91. You too!

[smirkymonkey]

89. Sorry, I misread your post.

[HUAJIAO]

22. Well, tomorrow....

It was my last orchestra rehearsal,.. Ginastera ESTANCIA, Corigliano THE RED VIOLIN CAPRICES, Tchaikovsky SYMPHONY#6...since then, no playing with others at all... just alone in my studio...

[sboatcar]

23. My company had already shifted to almost exclusively WFH

so I was at home, gradually getting more and more full of existential dread.

I was also fighting this terrible cough, fever, crazy dreams, and other things, but I couldn't get a covid test anywhere to know if I had it....so that added even more to the feeling of dread and "Omg I might die"

[Dial H For Hero]

24. I was in the AmEx Centurion Lounge at LAX on my way back from Thailand.

It was early evening, and I had a few hours to kill before my flight back to Denver, so I was getting a complimentary massage when I started hearing people throughout the lounge raising their voices. Trump had just announced a ban on all travel from Europe, and most of the people there were frantically cancelling their travel plans (The Centurion Lounge gets a lot of international travelers).

Just as an anecdote, Donald Sutherland was sitting across from me on the flight to Denver.

[Meowmee]

25. We had just gone to online learning on March 10th

I think was teaching or had taught my last class by then maybe and had already been exposed to covid. I had covid pneumonia 3-4 weeks later. It started with severe headache and runs and then started into my respiratory system a week or so later. A year later this March 10th the day in person learning had stopped, I received my 2nd pfizer shot for this deadly virus.

The thing that sticks out in my mind the most was going to my hematologist and telling him that I already felt sick but he did not think I have Covid from the bloodwork at that point because my neutrophils were ok. He gave me some masks and said to wear them.

By the time I came down with pneumonia and had more bw done later, they had dropped a lot. I told him we were thinking of returning to Canada and right after that they close the borders- that was when I started to get really scared because I knew how bad this was going to be. And I knew there would be no good medical care. Now a year later this has devastated my family especially my father who now has severe effects from Covid which he contracted at the emergency room, and who has not received badly needed care still several weeks later. He has been released now several times in a terribly weakened condition both physically and mentally.

[kimbutgar]

29. I ran into a friend with her father a couple of days ago

Her Dad was a energetic man of 80 years I had met before. He got the Covid and he was in a wheel chair and had become a long hauler. She had become his full time caregiver because her Mother couldn’t care for him.

[Meowmee]

65. It is horrific what has happened

I am so sorry that happened to him. I really don't know if my father will ever return back to his normal now. We are pretty much a 24 hr icu now for him, with little help from the doctors. He is getting released tomorrow after surgery, again before he should be because he is refusing to do the acute care therapy to let himself heal due to how covid has affected his mental status.

[ChazII]

68. You are on a difficult journey which

you already know. The therapy would help but this you already know, too. Is there any other ways he and you can get help? Barrow Neurological Center's team was helpful in getting in touch with different agencies to help take care of my son. I wish I could help but I don't know how to navigate the medical world. Luckily, we were assigned a nurse navigator who helped co-ordinate Jay's care both inside the hospital and when he came home.

[Meowmee]

72. Thanks

Just your reply helps. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do if he refuses and he goes crazy each time at the hospital but they also keep releasing him despite us telling them it is dangerous, they declare him competent and want to get rid of him. Home care will be ordered but so far they haven’t been much use really. He has so many terrible things going on but the mental status is what is causing the most trouble because it is hindering his recovery and they are ignoring it. I am going to look up that center. I am glad your son and you got the help you need.

[GoneOffShore]

26. Had lunch with friends in Cassis looking out at Cap Canaille.

Drank rosè, ate seafood, had some really good ice cream.

Drove home to Aix and 6 days later we were filling out 'attestations' to go out for an hour a day for exercise or go shopping or do anything outside of our apartment. No masks at that point, but people crossing the road to avoid other people.

[musette_sf]

27. I was already working from home.

We began WFH on March 9. I was in Philadelphia the week before on business travel. I got back home on Wednesday, took Thursday as a WFH/personal day after travel, and had previously requested Friday as a WFH day. So, have been WFH since March 5.

[Wicked Blue]

28. I was in bed recovering from a bad ankle fracture nt

[movingviolation]

30. I can't, but my email does.

Apparently on that day I made stickers for "GAME-FUEL", and a big watermelon pattern sticker for outside of a rolling light up watermelon prop, sent some cnc files for making american ninja warrior obstacle course parts to my cnc operator, various quotes, phone calls, and print color tests, another busy af day.

[Retrograde]

31. Having surgery

The Bay Area didn't shut down until that weekend, but some places were already getting cautious and cancelling or cutting back on group activities. Even though I was home that evening and recovered quickly, I feel like I got an extra week of isolation.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

32. I was on my cruise to Hawaii.

We left San Diego on March 1, got back March 18. A year ago today we were probably in Honolulu. This cruise was a somewhat delayed 70th birthday present to myself, and I am so very glad I did it. We all felt remarkably safe on board, as we watched the news about the spreading pandemic. The already amazing level of cleanliness was ramped up over the entire voyage, which helped. Our final stop was Ensenade, Mexico, and we weren't allowed to get off, which was fine with all of us. Disembarkation went smoothly, and I flew home to Santa Fe. A friend picked me up at the airport, and it was quite strange returning to a city that was almost entirely shut down.

My next cruise, in two or three years, will be a 75th birthday present to myself.

[CrispyQ]

35. Have you ever done a train journey?

I had three DVDs of train journeys around the world when our library closed last year due to Covid. Whatever you had checked out, you got to hold onto until just recently when they reopened. I have watched those DVDs so many times & I still don't know which journey I would take first they are all so fabulous.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

39. Yes, I have. Love to travel by train.

I had another long train trip in the works for last April. From New Mexico to Chicago, overnight there, then to Seattle. Three overnights on the train, plus the hotel in Chicago. In Seattle I was going to spend about a week doing sightseeing, standard tourist stuff, then three days at a science fiction convention. Then fly home. Everything was booked: train, hotel, flights. Alas, the con was cancelled before I ever got off the cruise ship and I cancelled everything else. I hope to replicate that trip in a year or two.

Several years ago I took the train to Portland, OR, via Los Angeles. It was giant fun. And in 2019 I took the train to and from Kansas City.

I always book the sleeper car, a roomette. It's well worth it, in my opinion.

[CrispyQ]

69. I haven't done any train journeys, but when I was very young

we travelled from Denver to San Diego by train frequently, and I took a lovely train trip to Montana, once. I was going to do the California Zephyr last summer, but Covid. I'm especially fond of that train since we watch it climb the Flatirons when we hike up Eldorado Canyon. Trains are the reason I fell in love with James West.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

71. I used to live in Boulder.

I saw that train a lot. I would love to take that one.

There are any number of trips I hope to take before I'm too old. More train travel is definitely on the list.

I'd love to fly to Montreal, spend a few days there as a tourist, then get on the trans-Canadian train and take it all the way to Vancouver. I friend from high school lives there, so I could see her, do the tourist thing, then fly back home.

I've also long wanted to take the Trans Siberian Railway, starting from Vladivostok and ending in Moscow. I'm too old to take the one that is essentially second class all the way, with the menus completely in Russian. There are luxury versions, but as you might guess they are VERY expensive, and I doubt I'll ever have that kind of money. Oh, well.

There are also several long distance train routes in Australia I'd be willing to do. Again, and always, money will be an issue. Too bad for me. It's not as though I'm utterly deprived and will never be able to go anyone. Some of these things I'd like to do are within the realm of possibility.

[kimbutgar]

36. You're lucky you didn't get stuck on that boat like the people on the Grand princess

For weeks I saw out my window the boat docked in the SF Bay and then they transported the people to an army base to quarantine.

There was a story in our SF Chronicle this past week about their ordeal.

[demtenjeep]

52. our family cruise in June was cancelled

and my sister died

from cancer not covid

[Cal Carpenter]

33. I was at my shop, co-owned with my spouse, scared and trying to make very difficult decisions

Every minute was filled with anxiety because there was so much we didn't know.

Three days later, we closed our store to in-store shoppers in the middle of the day with no warning, despite how busy we were, even though it would have been great to wait, financially. We just couldn't do it to ourselves or the community. Less than a week after that iirc, we would have had to so anyway on orders from the state.

A year later, we are still operating curbside only.

[kimbutgar]

38. You're fortunate to still remain in business

I see so many boarded up storefronts all one true SF Bay Area. it’s so sad.

[Cal Carpenter]

41. I know. Back then I never would have thought we'd make it a year this way

We're a sort of specialty retail, a neighborhood mom-and-pop, and our customers have been incredibly loyal. It's been tight, we've barely paid ourselves, and it can't last much longer. Once we're vaccinated we'll feel better about the idea of letting people in, although cases in our state have risen 40% in the last 2 weeks so... ?!

[maryellen99]

34. Not specifically the 11th but the 12th

I saw pictures on Instagram of empty grocery shelves that evening. My husband and I went grocery shopping at 11:30 that night and it was so unsettling seeing the empty shelves for the first time.

[kimbutgar]

37. The night Disneyland closed we went to a store to buy some sparkling water for the drive back

To SF and were shocked To see the long lines and shelves being emptied.

[maryellen99]

40. So unsettling nt

[MustLoveBeagles]

56. The week before this I bought a 36 roll pack of TP

I'm so glad I did. I wish I'd had to foresight to stock up on bleach, antibacterial wipes, and hand sanitizer.

[maryellen99]

67. Same here nt

[brooklynite]

42. Easy to remember...

Laurie Garrett (a friend as I've mentioned before) had been giving us updates on the world situation since January. My wife was working in DC and and I was preparing to drive down and bring her back to NYC (as Laurie put it: "decide where you want to be for the next six months, and with whom&quot . I adjusted my schedule when she reported on the lockdown plans that she'd been briefed on and how quickly they were going to be implemented.

[electric_blue68]

43. In NYC I raced to the Library because it was the last day to grab ...

DVD's for the longer than expected haul and... a book-
a really good thick SF book! 😁

I already staying more inside several days earlier, and was using masks, alcohol for several days since we we're among the first cities/areas to be hit.

[Ms. Toad]

44. Teaching my last in person class until August this year.

My unversity announced during my 12-3 class that they were shutting down at 5 PM.

[ChazII]

45. Being told that my son's brain had been delivered to Barrow

Neurological Institute and that the rest of his body would be used by another medical facility for orthopedic surgical techniques. The glioblastoma killed him but he also had scoliosis and neurofibromatosis.

[Sogo]

61. So sorry for your loss....

[DFW]

76. Glioblastoma is a cruel cancer

My wife lost her brother to it over ten years ago, and a good friend is about to lose his son to it. He just turned 40. A VERY cruel disease. My condolences!

[ChazII]

83. Thank you. Glioblastoma has taken

more friends than the covid virus. In 2020 I lost five friends to this tumor and 1 to the virus.

[GoCubsGo]

46. I watched a hockey game after having a "usual" day.

It turned out to be the Blackhawks' last regular game of the season. The league put the season on pause after that. My gym still hadn't closed at that point, and discussion of the pandemic came up in my spin class. A lot of the people were still treating it as no big deal. That changed a few days later...

[Dagstead Bumwood]

47. The wife and I both had the day off

to take care of some business downtown. We were both so proud of how vigilant we were being with sanitizing our hands. Masks? Who needs those? We weren't wearing them, nor were any of the people we interacted with in the city building and in the various offices we visited. Just keep passing the Purell!

After concluding our business, we went to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Again, mask-less, and mask-less people were dining in booths on either side of us. How safe!

After lunch, we spent some time looking at dishwashers and refrigerators at a nearby big-box retailer.

I shutter now when I think of how perilous our situation was, and how lucky were were to emerge unscathed.

That one years seems like a lifetime ago.

[kimbutgar]

51. Yes it does

[struggle4progress]

48. I was visiting my 90yo mother, who lives 1000 mi away

When I got back, everyone was trying to sort out the Trump virus cluskerfck

[ProfessorGAC]

49. I Was On A Jury

Felony domestic battery case.
The trial ended the next day.
Then I subbed math on Friday the 13th, at a junior high about 8 miles north of us. That was the last day of school for the '19-'20 school year.

[kimbutgar]

53. I miss my sub teaching during this pandemic

[IzzaNuDay]

50. Already at home

Knowing COVID hotspots were already nearby. We were already prepared with food and water, and TP. We discovered later a Costco-sized TP supply would last us 6 months and we bought some months ago!

[kskiska]

54. I don't even remember who I was.

[MustLoveBeagles]

55. I was probably at work

All I really remember about that day is seeing on the news that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson had the virus. The state agencies didn't go into lockdown until St. Patrick's Day.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Hekate]

57. Home, painfully rehabbing from a total knee replacement, trying to talk hubby into stocking up...

..the pantry and freezer. He just couldn’t; it’s not in his skillset. I had to wait until I was mostly off the walker, and then called my SIL for a ride to Trader Joe’s where I filled a cart.

In March I furloughed my 2 cleaning ladies. In my mind I somehow thought I would be able to have them back in 3 months, but it was not to be. Cita texted me just a few weeks ago asking about returning, and I gave her our timeline — finish vaccinating in March (this month), taxes in April, then hopefully they can return in May, a full year after I imagined.

I had the surgery 2-19-2020, one of the last elective surgeries for the hospital, and already the hospital was in preparation mode for what was coming... What is so maddening is WE KNEW. Just like the 1-9-2021 Insurrection, WE KNEW.

The only thing we did not know, that we could not have known, is how maliciously and murderously the response would be botched. What Joe Biden is doing now is what I thought our country would be doing then. I expected Trump would let the CDC and other agencies do their jobs, not cripple them.

If there is a Hell, Trump and Jared Kushner and all the other bloody-handed enablers belong there. If there is Karma, they will all come back as cockroaches and sewer rats.

[Blue_true]

58. I had already started wearing masks.

That is the only thing that stands out . I know that I lived life normally, except for dining in restaurants and socializing.

[Mr.Bill]

59. I know what I wasn't doing.

I wasn't sitting here thinking in one year I would be vaccinated against the virus. Today is day seven after my second shot.

[Sogo]

60. I had already started isolating, wearing masks, and stocking up on supplies, because

one of my neighbors and his wife had come down with COVID. They had hosted a friend from Norway who had been traveling all throughout Europe, then came to the US via Mexico. Within four days after their friend left, the neighbors became ill. Those were the days when it was nearly to get a COVID test, so they only had their symptoms to go by to determine they had it. They both stayed out of the hospital, but were very, very ill. It sent an immediate chill throughout the neighborhood, and we all just withdrew into our own environs. I've pretty much been isolated since, except to go for groceries every so often. I'm scheduled for my first dose of Moderna in the next couple of weeks, so it seems like there's now a light at the end of the tunnel....

[ecstatic]

62. Lol. Returning from Middle East cruise. Yikes!

16 hour flight from Dubai back into NYC, of all places. No masks. It was supposed to be a 2-week cruise but we left a few days early because shit was starting to hit the fan. Returned home to empty store shelves.

[smirkymonkey]

63. My brother was in town on a layover and we were wondering if it was safe enough to go out to

dinner. We walked down the street to my favorite Thai restaurant and there was nobody in there, just people picking up take out, so we decided to take a chance. That was the last time I had dinner inside an actual restaurant. We were the only two people in there.

It was exactly a year ago today. How much things have changed.

I can't wait to have a real restaurant dinner again! I really miss eating out more than anything.

[Raine]

64. I went to the market like any other time and was shocked because it was

like the sacking of Atlanta. People were running around like they were crazy and the shelves were stripped bare. I had been calm but after seeing that I really started getting worried.

[pnwmom]

66. I was at home, where we'd been for more than a week. Everything in the Seattle area

started shutting down around March 3, when Amazon, Google, and a research hospital announced that they were sending their employees home to work remotely.

We didn't wait for Trump to finally decide we were in a pandemic. The researchers at UW did a better job of informing us than even the CDC, as it was hobbled and restrained by Trump.

[Initech]

70. I was in Vegas for 311 Day.

And the Friday night show was the second of 3 concerts. Not to mention the pre-show festivities of drinking heavily and partying with 311 fans from all over the country and even world. Most of there were forgetting about the holy hell that was about to be unleashed on us and enjoying the shows.

I remember when I got the news I had attempted to go home but the wifi in my hotel completely went out and I had no way of contacting the airlines or modifying my reservations. I felt like I was in that movie "The World's End" - do I keep going and attending the 2nd and 3rd shows or do I go home? And since I had no way of being able to modify my flight reservation to go home, I went to the 2nd and 3rd shows and still had fun like nothing was going on.

I had no idea that the following year I'd be watching a 311 livestream concert at home and my chances of seeing a real one again were very slim.

[CRK7376]

73. March 13, 2020 was my birthday

and the last day of nomarl school in my high school classroom. We went into remote learning within a week and the nightmare of Covid and no kids, getting laptops for all kids and wifi for the kids and faculty that needed connectivity, including me, our wifi is absolutely horrible. At the slightest hint of rain or snow or moderate winds we lose connectivity. THe school provided me and several other teachers that live in rural parts of the county with a Verizon Hotspot. Which was great, I could teach out of my barn. I put a huge chalkboard down there years ago when our kids were young, they do as all kids do when given huge blackboard with color chalk, they drew and wrote stuff and had fun. That hotspot saved me for the rest of 3rd and 4th quarter. I even got to use it for a month when remote classes kicked off again in late August. By then the school system told us to return the HotSpots it was costing them too much money....Now weare back in school with 4 cohorts of kids , 2 cohorts of kids, monday and tuesday and 2 more cohorts on Thursday & Friday....we've been doing this for about 3 weeks now and the largest number of kids in my classroom has been 4, 2 of the kids did not return to school for their second day of cohort, they went back home and joinded the class in remote learning or dropped out again....I don't see us returning to normal school until next fall if we are lucky.....The city/county school system did get vaccinations, at least the first round of vaccinations for all teachers starting last week. I got my first vaccination 2 weeks ago and have another 2 weeks until my second Moderna shot.....Life goes on, at least I have a big pasture with lots of wildlife visiting our creek and posing for my game camera. I hate remote learning as do most of my fellow teachers.....So yeah, I remember last March 13th very well.

[DFW]

77. I was down in Spain

Friday the thirteenth, or „divendres el tretze,“ as the locals say.

I had flown down to Barcelona on Wednesday, the 11th, to be there early for a small meeting/convention on Friday. Hours after I landed, the meeting was canceled. Two guys from the States dashed to the airport, panicked that their flights home a few days later might be canceled, too. It turns out they were right. I chanced it, and remained until Saturday. On Saturdays, the usual evening flight back to Düsseldorf doesn‘t run, so I had to fly over to Madrid, and catch a flight to Düsseldorf from there.

Barcelona to Madrid is an hourly shuttle, and it is never late—except this time. I missed the flight to Düsseldorf, and Iberia put me up at some hotel near the airport. My wife back in Germany was in panic because Madrid was already being declared a hotspot. The next morning, I got back to the airport for a special plane to Düsseldorf that Iberia had arranged for people who had come in from all parts of Spain the night before, and, like me, missed their connection to Düsseldorf. Except for one quick 50 minute flight down to Zürich in April, it was my last flight until July, which was when I flew to the USA for what turned out to be my last visit. We are hoping to go again in April, but no vaccinations here until late July, so that remains unclear.

[mnhtnbb]

78. I had come back a week early on March 9th

from what was supposed to be a 2 week trip to celebrate my birthday on Bonaire. My son and his partner had literally cancelled coming to join me by sending me a 4 am text from the airport on March 7th. The partner has a fear of flying and adding in the worry about this novel coronavirus put him over the edge to the point he couldn't bring himself to check in.

The day after I got back I went to the store to stock up and discovered almost empty shelves of toilet paper!

As it turned out, the return AA flight I was originally scheduled to come home on from Bonaire on March 16th turned out to be the last AA flight out of Bonaire before the airport was closed!

The Bonaire airport is still closed to any direct flights from the US.

[tavernier]

81. Trying to figure out how to make a mask

out of an old brassiere. Someone had posted instructions on Google. There were none to be had in stores.

[kimbutgar]

84. I made ones out of old t shirts and some boxer shorts of my husbands!

[aocommunalpunch]

82. Last year yesterday, I was planning the rest of the next three weeks with my colleagues.

We had been told we were going to teach from home through Spring Break due to COVID. We laughed and said how we'd see each other in a month. Ha ha. Fast forward one year later.

I'm about to return to the classroom for the first time to actually teach there almost to the day, one year later. If you had told me then what was going to happen over the course of the next year, I probably wouldn't have believed you.

I hope people work with the vaccinations and we are able to have some version of normalcy again. I know I'm not alone in that respect, but I'm probably going to have masks around for the rest of my life, so the changes of COVID cannot be understated. That doesn't even count the deaths and suffering by those left behind.

I am a changed person due to the past year. I've examined myself emotionally and spiritually to find holes that I can repair in new ways. Now, I'm ready to apply what I've learned to the old me from the physical classroom, to which I return in two days. What a whirlwind.

[whistler162]

87. Well Pinky I was doing the same thing I do everyday

Trying to take over the world!

[meow2u3]

92. I was at the gym working out

The next day, the Planet Fitness gym closed because of the pandemic. So did the liquor stores, so I couldn't even drown my sorrows in liquor.