March 16, 2020. Official Shelter In Place

I was so angry going to work this morning. My boys were home, safe and sound. Mom and Dad are doing just fine...as long as Dad stays HOME. So I went off to Del Rey.

It was a ghost town when I got there.I started to quickly print out schedules and educational stuff for the boys before anyone else got there. The whole campus was eerie. If you saw someone else in the hall you switched to the other side to move the 6 feet away from them. We had a staff meeting this morning..which sounds insane. And it was. But we had the ability to video conference in so that's what we did in Room 11. It actually went very smoothly for Del Rey's very first video conference! We learned in that meeting that the district wanted us to come in for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday...but we were to hurry back to class to make work packets for our students. I decided I would use my sick leave if I need to, but I would NOT be coming back to school to waste my time.

Around 2pm I got a text from Michelle Clowser who had heard that Alameda County, along with almost all of the Bay Area, would have to go into Shelter In Place starting midnight tonight. I knew what that meant: no more work! The announcement was made publicly and within 5 minutes, Mr. Carpenter, our principal went on the loud speaker: we were to leave with our personal belongings NOW. Everyone had to vacate within 5 minutes. It was serious. Thankfully our work was done. I had made a very nice list of resources for the students to use since we're so good at Google Classroom daily. Unfortunately, those very nice packets are sitting in our classroom. With no way to get them to the students. Lucky for Joey I went to his teacher's room and got his materials just 10 minutes before we were told to evacuate. Lucky Lucky Lucky.

 Why yes. That IS an asparagus on my cleaned off desk! We grew it in the garden. We planted almost all of our seedlings just praying they take. And of course, we had dentist appointments last week only to find Joey needed a new crown on a back molar. The dentist was still open so Dr. Yee got Joey in just in the knick of time. Trust me, Joe was NOT happy about it... I was just making him laugh for a photo. I'm proud of how brave my boys have been. I sure didn't feel brave earlier today.

We are now on Shelter In Place until April 7th. That means only going to the grocery store or the hospital. The end. The grocery stores are empty. Completely empty. I'm glad I've heeded the words of our prophets and we have a good amount of food storage. A lot of it was destroyed by mice we had earlier this winter but we'll have enough. It won't be exciting...but we'll eat without having to go out. Joe and I stopped at KFC (Kentucky Friend Chicken) on our way home from the dentist and got some food since that will most likely be the last fast food we get in a long time. I froze some of it. These are some sketchy times. Tomorrow we will start our home routine for learning, exercise and good mental health. We'll go to Arroyo and get lunches and breakfast for the next day while they're still supplying it.