Featured Refresh
Text & Image
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
My Pandemic Life at the Educational Park Moderna shots received with my husband At the new track facility in my hometown Built, never used as lockdown began First use? CERT volunteers open doors Vaccines from orthopedic surgeons! My second shot given by a young physician. The educational park holds multiple schools Next to this new track facility, now open When I was in a sixth grader only One school on the hillside as cows grazed . I pondered what my grade school self might Wonder seeing this future, 57 years onward. How shocking ? Two shots saved our lives With a year old pandemic sweeping by Catching over three million souls In a wake that also bred mistrust Honoring the flag ? Are you right, left? Ruby shot Oswald but Floyd dead on our screens Fifty plus years ago displayed fallout shelter Placed in our town square - what a sight It might all end in a second, no notice Try hiding young heads under school desks? Now years later masks are new shelters Injected vaccines saving lives cascading past. The educational park holds old memories: A line drive to my eye while pitching A softball to a friend, knocking me out I learned that epsom salts work well I see girls in skirts galloping across fields If not jumping ropes we warred in dodgeball My half-foot shorter eleven year old self Could not see her future husband running An outdoor track to complete a virtual 5k We had run so many BAA marathons Patriots Day ‘21 we donned running gear As golden hued forsythia lit the hillsides. The pandemic issued in unique moments So our 5k, of multiple track loops beckoned Us on that Patriots Day weekend fully Bright sun blinded us,dark clouds arose As first light sprinkles of refreshing rain Turned to hail stones as we ran for our jeep Educational park was named for a neighbor Voted “First selectman” he selected this land The cows moved on, buildings now bearing Names of farmers who worked the hillsides And one field bears a classmate’s name Who was a town coach, his name also honored. We also walked loops circumventing the park Daily with springer alert to resident ground hogs The pandemic has made our routines range local Discarded light blue masks, newly strewn refuse So many seasons passed yet i see my younger self While ahead my husband watches new forsythia bloom.
April 27, 2021
Text Only
How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
My boss tested positive. I am so glad that I insisted when we were in the office, he sat in his office with the door shut and everything has spoken was over the phone. I am glad that I called out that he was coughing. I am glad that he decided to stay home the next day. I am glad that I decided I need to work from home. And so it has been 9 days since I was even in the same building as him. But that is still scary. It was so close. He didn't feel ill. He thought I was being sensitive but was ok with that. I don't know what I would have done if it was me --- I worry for my husband, and even more so for my father in law. The law here in the UK that won't give the second dose of the Pfizer until 12 weeks is still making me mad. What makes me even angrier is that some GP's were allowed to take it in their discretion to give it or not, and my father in law's decided they were ok with this new rule. I do think that it is immoral to change a dose on people without knowing the side effects. I think it is immoral to change the dose on people after they agree to the original plan, and not give them a say. They are doing this in an immoral and unethical way - and I feel helpless in creating a change. I will write to my MP. I hope he will write to him. I want to call out to all those in the UK to write to their MPs to stop this process. And then I think about New Jersey (USA), where my 96-year-old grandmother can't get an appointment for a vaccine. Where my 65-year-old mother, who is a teacher can't get a vaccine, and her words are 'they changed the system so smokers get a vaccine before teachers' and teachers have to be in the classroom; have to go to work; have to interact with others. My father who is also 65, who has many comorbidities also can't get one. So I sit here worrying about myself, my family, my loved ones, the world. And then I am thankful and recognize my privilege. I have a job. I can work from home. I get my groceries delivered to my house.
January 21, 2021