That Which Shall Not Be Named

As you may have noticed, things are happening right now. Big worldwide things. As of my last real time post on Leap Day, things were more or less cautiously proceeding as normal. I had returned to Ann Arbor from New England for another semester with my micelles and it was time to (finally) write my manuscript (again). Soccer season was starting and college hockey was ending regular season play. I had a band concert in a week. The weather was overall improving and it looked like spring was on its way. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked.

Sunday, March 1 was the first Sunday of the month, and I attended church, prepared communion, and had lunch as usual. The next day, Monday, March 2, was the last band rehearsal before our upcoming concert. In order to run everything one last time before concert day, the band voluntarily stayed late. For the rest of the week, my lab continued as normal, which is to say we all continued not showing up to the office and working strange hours when we did make an appearance. Michigan was on spring break, but universities across the country were starting to switch to online classes and asking students to leave or not return to campus from breaks. Our lab was told to have a plan in case we were asked to ramp down/communicate remotely/work from home.

On Saturday, March 7, I watched the Revolution open their home season against the Chicago Fire. New Polish designated player Adam Buksa scored his first goal for the team, but the game ended in a 1-1 draw. Sunday, March 8 was our third band concert of the season, featuring pieces composed or arranged by composers with ties to Michigan. What was a little different for the band was that we had a guest conductor, an Ann Arbor public school teacher, but it ended up being fun for both of us. It turned out to be a pretty good concert, then on my way back to my apartment, seeing the hoards gathering for the Bernie Sanders rally that same day, I started thinking it might not be such a great idea having all the students converging on campus coming back from who knows where.

Classes resumed on Monday, March 9 and Tuesday, March 10, even as the number of confirmed cases in the United States crept through the hundreds. By Wednesday, March 11, Michigan made the decision to cancel classes for the rest of the week and move to online instruction the following week, like dozens of other universities. Since it still seemed relatively tame in Michigan, we had a normal group meeting on Thursday, March 12, though about a third of the lab joined us via BlueJeans.

I didn’t go into the office on Friday the Thirteenth, but did venture out on Saturday, March 14, for groceries. Kroger was busier than usual for early-ish on a Saturday morning; was out of paper products, certain canned goods, pasta, and frozen vegetables; and people were a little pushier than normal. This was about the time that everything started exploding. MLS suspended their season for 30 days. NCAA playoff hockey was cancelled as Cornell was having its best season in years. PhD visit weekends, conferences, seminars – all cancelled. Church went from still meeting but cancelling lunch and taking other precautions to Facebook sermon with the option of meeting in small groups. The Ann Arbor District Library closed and pushed back all due dates, so I guess now I can watch Spider-Man: Far From Home seventeen thousand times if I want.

Sunday, March 15, I had no desire to be on public transport or ride my bike to church, so I stayed in and watched the sermon from my desk. The next week, we were highly encouraged to work from home if possible. Midweek, on Wednesday, March 18, we were officially told that nonessential research would be shut down on Friday. Pro and con of computational research – we can work from basically anywhere, at basically any time. Yay us. On Thursday, March 19, I made a trip to my office to pick up most of my things, because if I didn’t grab my books, the one vital fact necessary to publish my paper would have been in one of those books. We also had our first fully virtual group meeting that day, plus I made enough chicken chili and cornbread to eat for dinner for the next full week.

By Friday, March 20, I finished rereading all the books I had out from the library, and picked up where I left off in my reread of The Lord of the Rings (book 4, in The Two Towers). Things were a little calmer at the grocery store on Saturday, March 21, then on Sunday, March 22 after my second Facebook sermon, I made pancakes for lunch and finished The Office that night.

After that, life settled down a bit. We did officially get the stay at home order on Monday, March 23, though by then people were generally trying to do that anyway. The emails with subject headings like URGENT READ THIS RIGHT NOW OR ELSE detailing constant policy changes have been greatly reduced. I’m watching Netflix writing my paper from my apartment. I’ve been enjoying our grey, windy, mid-40s weather solely because it means if I venture outside, very few other people also want to be outside. So that is what’s been going on in Ann Arbor so far, a couple weeks into hiding out at my apartment. Two down, at least four more to go.

Castle Island

On a fine winter’s day in New England, my family and I took a day trip into Boston to explore Castle Island. However, Castle Island was joined to the Massachusetts mainland in 1928 and is no longer an island. The peninsula it’s part of is now also connected to a walking path around the adjacent Pleasure Bay. Before the Revolutionary War, Castle Island was home to a series of forts, including Castle William, that were manned by the British. When the British realized that the Continental Army was a threat during the Revolutionary War, they evacuated the fort, burning it as they left. The fort was rebuilt, renamed Fort Adams, used as a prison until 1805, and then was manned during the War of 1812.

In 1834, the fort was again reconstructed and at the end of construction, again renamed – to Fort Independence, its current name. During the Civil War, Fort Independence was garrisoned and used to train infantry and artillery. Following the war, the fort was rarely used and the government eventually turned it over to the state of Massachusetts, who turned it into a park to be enjoyed by the people.

Walking around the bay - beach, skyline, and Harbor Islands

By the time we arrived, it was around midafternoon, but sunny and warm for New England in the middle of winter. We first walked around the fort; there wasn’t much signage and no tours going on, but we saw some cannons. Fun fact – the only time the cannons have been fired not as a test or training exercise was in 1776 at the end of the Siege of Boston by the British. Unfortunately for them, the Americans were out of range, and one of the cannons exploded . . . wounding seven British soldiers. Fun fact number two – Edgar Allan Poe was stationed at Fort Independence in 1827 and may have based “The Cask of Amontillado” on a duel that occurred at the fort.

After examining the exterior of the fort, we went for a walk around the bay. The whole loop is around 1.8 miles in length, and very flat. While you walk, you get views of the Harbor Islands out towards Massachusetts Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, and of the Boston skyline, including the John Hancock Tower and Prudential Building (no Citgo sign though). Logan Airport is just north of Castle Island, so you also have airplanes flying right overhead every few minutes. It’s kind of fun to try and identify the airlines by the bottom of their planes. There’s also a beach area, but shockingly enough, no one was sunbathing or enjoying the frigid waters.

Fort Independence, Faneuil Hall, and the Children's Museum

Following our lap around the bay, we drove into South Boston intending to have dinner in Chinatown. We parked outside of downtown and walked in, because the number one tip for driving in Boston is – don’t. There was still some time before dinner, so we decided to walk over to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. On our way, we passed by the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, the Children’s Museum, and the Hood Milk bottle. It was getting dark when we got to Quincy Market, so we got to enjoy the lights and Christmas tree that were up. From there, we made our way to the Common, saw more lights, and headed over to Chinatown for dinner. I had chicken curry; it was delicious.