Today was rainy and cold. We started with sleety spit, and a dusting of snow on the ground, and a layer of ice on the sidewalks. But it was a good and mostly happy day.

The eight-year old turned nine today. We started off with a quick trip to the grocery store for some donuts, as requested by the princess. The kids were dismayed that they really had to stay in the car, but were intrigued by the other cars with people waiting in them. “We’re not the only ones” has been our message for a few days, and the bits on the news and hearing from friends and neighbors is helping drive that home. So did seeing all of the other people go in one-at-a-time while their companions sat in the cars.

While the others set into their screens for a little video, game, or e-mail time, i shuffled all of the furniture in the main room around, and triple-vacuumed the carpet, dog beds, and some of the furniture cushions. We usually have cleaners who do this occasionally, but with the stay-at-home orders, we decided to forego for the duration. This wiped me out, and some of the stirred dust and dirt bothered my respiratory system; I’m sure someone would doubt my “allergies” brush-off if we’d met at the grocery store. I did also finally change the sheets in our bed, but didn’t vacuum upstairs yet.

After I cleaned that little bit, I settled into a documentary about Evel Knievel. He was a big deal when I was a kid. Of course, as a kid, all I knew about him was he tried to jump bikes on television, crashed a lot, and didn’t make it over the canyon in a rocket. He’d drifted into sports obscurity as I became an older kid and young adult. Most of what I remembered about him later was that he had a cool toy, and a few horrible crash clips. I had heard he was a bit of a jerk, and died of cancer. The documentary showed all of that, and some of his successes, which I also remembered when I saw them again. It also showed he was a giant ass. I think they called it “lung disease” that took him in the end.

We ate lunch, and I took the little for a nap. Seems to be the dad thing to do this last few weeks, so since the days all seem to be the same, we kept it going.

As the little little napped, the women took to decorating the birthday cake. A chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and colorful sugar letters spelling out a happy birthday greeting. This was finished off by a nearly full (measuring) cup of colorful sprinkles. 

In what’s probably not an unfamiliar happening these days, parties were held using online chat. In our case, we used Zoom, which I understand is suddenly worth an extra billion dollars. Two video parties were held, with classmates and our adoption group. Pizza was delivered, at the princess’ request. We followed that with a video chat with the older daughter and her kids.

We finished with some cake, which it turns out the princess didn’t like, and ice cream, which she did. A few gifts had been collected while the wife was running errands to her parents, and some from us. THe princess was a little disappointed it didn’t include a remote-controlled car, but she was gracious and happy with the rest of it, and the effort, and the attention.

She still hates the coronavirus, because it made all of her friends have to be on the computer and not in some fun play place. But despite the differences, she’s pretty happy to be nine now.

The little little developed a little cough, that seems to have settled away. I attribute it to some of the dust stirred earlier, and possibly the swing back to cold, dry weather. It rained a lot, but there sure seems to be a lack of humidity. We’ll keep an ear on that.

Oh, the White House announced “stay at home” through April now, too. It’s spring break for the kids for the next week, then distance learning. It all aligns with the governor’s earlier plan, and fortunately my company’s work-from-home direction. I imagine we’ll learn more about the flatten-the-curve successes (or misses), get the hoped-for benefit of hospital relief and manufacturing returns, and maybe some headway on treatments, testing, and vaccinations or cures. 

Otherwise, everyone seems healthy. Happier today, even with crummy weather. Work tomorrow, so we’ll see if we can make that routine work.