We have *intended* to try to make our own masks, to answer the last question. We even bought a sewing machine on Amazon. But since we haven't been outside -- meaning, haven't been outside in the public -- We've had less of an incentive to try to make our own masks, and other things keep coming up and we keep pushing it off. At this point in time, I've ordered a few months off masks online. One of the companies that I think I mentioned in my last diary, fanatics.com, have partnered with the NBA to make a team branded masks that they now sell. They're supposed to arrive here sometime in mid-May. And I guess remains to be seen whether or not we're going to try to do something before that in terms of making our own masks. I'd like to, personally. I'd like to be able to share masks with the community, if I'm able to make them. But much like with a lot of the other good intentions that we've had in terms of, you know, me learning python or me learning to play the guitar: being productive personally productive when it's not -- when the (Big Bang Theory fans will recognize this) When the locus of -- this quote -- when the locus of motivation is not external. Sometimes it gets really hard to motivate yourself to do something productive internally. So very long-winded way of answering this question with: No, we have not yet tried to make our own masks. But we have all the materials and sewing machine that hopefully -- it's tiny, it's cheap -- but hopefully is up to the task, if and when we finally get around to it.

I am a third grade school teacher. We're in our 6th week of distance learning for our students. This is not something I was trained to do. They are learning so much about technology and problem-solving. I mean it is, it is so cool to see an email come from a child rather than an adult asking a question about how something has to be done. I can sense their angst. I can sense their frustration. You know at our last grade level meeting we talked about different standards. Different standards of each subject that need to be covered yet and that we need to record on the report card. But the more I think about it is I really am not too worried about those standards. I really don't care. What's more important to me is those kids, and getting them through the trauma and the uncertainty that comes with this pandemic. So often I'll have a child say "Do I have to do this?" and it's like, no you don't. To me, it's just a blessing to see their faces on the Zoom screen each day. And to see that they're okay. And I've also found that it's good for them to talk to each other. They don't have a way to do that right now. They can't play with their friends. They're stuck in their house with their family and they just need to talk to their friends, you know.And when I'm present in Zoom, it doesn't always work so well. So what I'm starting to do now is when I'm finished with what I need to cover, I think guys let's let's break into some breakout rooms and just talk to each other. It is the longest three minutes of my day waiting for them to come back from the break room. And I know that when I joined one of their breakup rooms, they just stop talking because I'm there and they think I need to take over. Even if I tell them I don't. But when they come back from the break out room, they're smiling so beautifully because they've just had a chance to talk to their friends. They can't meet them on the playground. They can't meet them in a classroom, but they can meet them in a Zoom breakout room. To me the most important thing that I want my kids…

Our COVID story started March 10th or so. I had symptoms that I thought were flu symptoms: body aches, extreme headache, dizziness, fever. And I was sick for a couple of days before I went to the ER and my husband drove me there and they brought us to a segregated area of Royal Oak Beaumont because of my symptoms of fever and body aches. And I was given IV fluids and EKG for some cardiac monitoring because I had a lot of dizziness. And I was given swabs for Respiratory panels and then a blood panel to rule out mono. So my respiratory panels ruled out strep and a couple of different strains of flu. My blood panel ruled out mono and other infection. So the doctor there at the ER agreed to give me the covid-19. And after a couple more hours of IV fluids, we were sent home and told for our whole household to go into quarantine, for 14 days at minimum. So we went into quarantine. After a few days, my husband also had symptoms similar to mine. He had a high fever, extreme body aches, fatigue, and extreme headache. He also had a cough at that point. I did not have a cough. His cough got pretty bad. Long story short on the illness part of it. My swab came back eight days later, and it said it was negative. But our doctor did not believe it was negative. She said to assume that we were positive and remain in quarantine. And we were not able to get tested again that we were told there were not enough test kits. So during this time of illness when we were quarantined there were several days where my husband and I both felt quite sick, worried for our health because we could not breathe very easily. And so we consulted by phone with my doctor's office and with the COVID hotline at Beaumont, but we were told not to leave our house unless we were in acute respiratory distress, which was described to us as if we were laying down and unable to catch our breath, that would be considered acute respiratory distress. And that would be the only reason that we would be admitted -- not even admitted but allowed in -- to be seen at the hospital and we also could not be seen…

As you probably know that there was that great lockout protest last week that -- or, gridlock protest -- that just crippled the capital. And even though my wife doesn't work for the government, she has nothing to do with the government, they are a private company, they still had people stop in front of their building shouting at them. Even though they're not involved and I just worry they say they're going to do more of these if they're just going to escalate and escalate. With the amount of guns around there. I just -- people -- someone's going to do something stupid, I worry.[...]Um. Yeah. To cope. I made a website, kentcovid.com. Just a graph. I like visualizing the data pattern. And I need to -- I want to help by doing something technical like I'm good with computers and I can set you up a production environment in the cloud in a second, but I don't know how to help everyday people with something like this.So I tried doing that through a website.

You know it's nice hearing from parents (my students) that every single student just misses school and misses me and misses hanging out with kids -- their classmates. Like there isn't a student that you know out there I think that doesn't want to just get back to school. And I think that's kind of nice to hear. That's kind of nice, you know that school is it's more than just learning your ABCs and one-two-three, like it's -- it takes care of a lot of necessities you know the social-emotional piece and just a lot. And I get to talk to kids and it's fun to interact. You know a lot of them are learning how to do this independently and that's that's kind of cool you know like nine year olds are figuring it out. I think that's, that's hopeful.

In a way I... I'm glad that it kind of hit me gradually. But I think I was really shocked when I went to Costco and the parking lot was filled, like there was no spot to park. Like you had to wait for a car to back out to get in. And then when I pulled in and got out, there were people and all they had in their carts was toilet paper. And I I was just in shock like what is going on and then I went in the store and there was like maybe two carts available and I looked -- and this is like 15 minutes after the store opened -- and I looked to the back of the, looked to the store and the line to checkout was snaking around the store and I just dropped the cart. You know, just just "I'm out of here this is this is awful." That was that was the first time I realized this is something -- this is bad. And then on the way home I went to Family Fare thinking, "well, little Family Fare in Zeeland's not gonna be as bad." But when I went to Family Fare, the shelves with all the paper products were completely empty. And I'm like "this looks like a third-world nation" all the -- it was scary. So that's when I realized it was real.