Covid Cancellations

I had a fun, busy spring scheduled.  I had five different talks scheduled.  One happened before things got ugly....and it went well.

Then there was our robotics tournament in Duluth.  That was right on the cusp, with handshakes being nixed and the frankly tedious parade of giant teams who win all the awards no longer trooping up en masse to get them.  So there's that.

A few days later our school had the every two years STEM night where robot and team had a grand time showing off for all concerned.  But by then a sort of Party at the End of the World feeling had set in.  You could just sense that it was not if but when things would close down.  A few days later the cascade began.  Schools, sporting events, non essential everything...gone.

Of the four remaining talks I have on the agenda one is officially off, likely postponed to fall.  Another I'm working to convert to a "virtual" format.  The final two are in limbo.  I figured just maybe things would quiet down in April but that is looking dubious.  The first case of covid-19 was reported in our community yesterday morning.

Even the annual archaeology trip to Vindolanda is in peril.  I'm fine with a couple of weeks of open air work, but when pubs are closed in Ireland then the English speaking world is taking this very seriously.  Also of course, at the current time there is no way to get across the Atlantic ocean without a paddle.  I did manage to sneak over in 2010 when an exploding volcano halted all trans Atlantic flight for a while, but I see fewer windows of opportunity this time around.

We actually flew over it on the way back.  It was way more impressive than this bucolic scene would have you believe.

Sigh.

My to do list is skimpy.   

Finish our taxes.  Like Death, they are certain.  Unlike death, they have an April 15th filing deadline.  While I'm feeling all official there's also a census form on the kitchen table.  Several writing projects that I've been dawdling over will go forward, probably demonstrating why I was luke warm about the subject matter in the first place.  And, if we can avoid infected people successfully, we are planning a few days each week up north with the grand kids.  Understandably the prior child care/preschool schedules have been blown up along with everything else and this is a nice opportunity for us.

In the end all will be fine.  There is a sense of shared community and a modest reduction in political rancor these days.  

And my family will be fine.  Wife and I are expendables.  Oldest and his clan live in superb northwoods isolation.  Youngest kid is in Milwaukee, which is getting weird, but he has his sense of humor.  Also a girl friend who is a neurobiologist working with rat brains.  I figure she'll get the both of 'em in good with our New Rodent Overlords.

And the middle kid?  I know I should worry about each of them equally, but there are just so few possible Post Apocalypse scenarios in which he does not emerge as a highly successful fur clad Warlord ruling over the remnants of human kind.