Today From Santa Fe


I hesitate to post anything. The doings of a retired woman in her little garden in a small city in the southwest seem grossly irrelevant right now. Nevertheless, here are a few observations and updates.

My son in California has recovered. Without a test, we don't know if he had a miserable case of flu or Covid19, but he's better now. He's still isolating at home -- everyone in the whole state is, per the governor, actually. His wife is healthy now, and the new puppy is in dog nirvana having his hoomans home all day.


My son in Denver is still going to work. As an introvert and a single man living alone, he excels at social distancing and finds he's pretty happy with it.

Jim's daughter and husband are staying home in Boston. In an odd foreshadowing, her company had just shut its office this winter and all employees were 100% working from home, so for her it's no change. Our son in law is one of those people who gets pneumonia from dental procedures (really, he's had it multiple times and has to have antibiotics to see the dentist) so there's a real risk there. They're both fine right now.

Jim is sick. Deep cough, runny nose, sore throat. No fever. We think it's a head cold, it feels like a cold, and without a fever he just doesn't fit the coronavirus profile. We're at home, of course, not going out.

My class at the botanical garden was held on Zoom -- we all joined via our computers and I really liked it. It was better than sitting in a cold auditorium, unable to hear participant questions or see around the bald guy sitting in front of me.


The slides were clear on my screen, the moderator took questions easily when anyone clicked "raise hand" and you could tell who was in the audience and who was talking. It was so much better than the awkward dynamics of an in-person presentation in a group. If this is going to be the future, I like it.

But that's an unsettling thought -- this all may be the future of how we interact.

Comments

libraryeducator said…
I think it is nice to have things to count on - like your observations on life. Never think there aren't people out there wanting to know what is happening. A young person once told me that Facebook allowed him to quickly touch fingers with his friends just to make sure that everyone was still there and OK. I am liking Zoom as well - we are all now working from home until the end of March and talking via Zoom every morning as a Library. I read a wonderful piece that says this pandemic will have lasting impacts on how everything works going forward and I think distance ed will be one of them. Karen
Laurrie said…
I agree we may have a lasting change in how meetings and classes get conducted. When I was working (14 years ago now!) teleconferences were terrible and almost unworkable, so when I signed in to Zoom, I was prepared for the worst. But, boy, was it easy and effective and full of tools to communicate -- a big improvement over the old technology. And even an improvement over in-person classes!