Another month of working from home and social distancing. The stay at home order from the governor was extended twice, first to May 28, then to June 12, but more businesses have been allowed to open under varying restrictions. Manufacturing could start back up in the middle of the month, plus at some point garden stores and bike repair shops were also reopened. By the end of the month, parts of northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula were permitted to open with limited customers, distancing, and face coverings. For the rest of the state, gatherings of less than ten people are allowable, retail can open for shopping-by-appointment, and nonemergency dental and doctor services will soon resume.
By Friday, May 1, I had my manuscript back from my advisor to edit. #HereWeGoAgain. On Saturday, May 2, I took a second try at a basic sugar cookie recipe. Something went wrong the first time I made it, because I remember the cookies not coming out great, and this time they looked and tasted just fine. The only difference I know of for sure is that I halved the recipe except for the one egg. It’s possible the extra half egg fixed everything, but I’m pretty sure I did something wrong last time. Either that or Mercury was in retrograde.
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| North Campus |
Sunday, May 3, I got up early and went on an adventure to visit ten different parks/nature areas near1 me. I worked out a route that would connect the parks as part of my latest efforts to see how many parks in Ann Arbor I can visit, because what else am I doing with my time. Over the next week (Monday, May 42-Friday, May 8), I continued editing my manuscript, saw Ken Jennings’ first appearance on Jeopardy!, and rewatched the first four games of Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time featuring Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhauer. Mostly I’ve been watching a lot of TV, but on Sunday, May 10, and Monday, May 11, I streamed The PhD Movie and The PhD Movie 2: Still in Grad School, which are/were available on the PhD comics website, and sum up everything terrible and wonderful about grad school. [The PhD comics author, Jorge Cham, came to Michigan a couple years ago and I happened to actually read the right email with the information about his visit, so I went to see him.]
1Subject to your definition of near.
2Star Wars day. May the 4th be with you.
It rained a lot on and off throughout the rest of the week, but I got outside a few times to wander through the woods and check on the creeks and rivers. Saturday, May 16 was a lovely day so I took the opportunity to loop through another set of parks after groceries in the morning. On Sunday, May 17, I listened to Facebook sermon #10 and baked another batch of cookies. These were chocolate and meant to go with the jar of marshmallow spread I had in my cabinet that I picked up off the clearance shelf at some point for a dollar.
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| A walk in the woods . . . after some rain |
Monday, May 18, began another workweek with my manuscript, virtual advisor meeting, and virtual group meeting. I also worked my way through my puzzle collection (only a couple left), read, did a couple laps around North Campus, continued my nightly viewing of Jeopardy!, watched Star Trek, ate, slept, etc. And on Thursday, May 19 I explored more parks, because I’m really not kidding when I say I have nothing better to do. I also get to see the different neighborhoods in Ann Arbor and figure out which nature areas have potential for repeat hiking.
It was forecast to rain basically all of Memorial Day weekend and the week after, but it turned out to be sunny and hot instead. I finally had to switch our thermostat over from heating to cooling and stop opening the blinds because the apartment is a giant solar oven, and we still hit 80 F for the first time this year on Sunday, May 24. On Memorial Day (Monday, May 253) itself, I stayed inside to avoid potential crowds and ended up getting some research done. By Tuesday, May 26, I finished my last puzzle, so I can add that to my coronavirus accomplishments along with aimless wandering and eating ice cream straight from the carton. I went out in the evening/night for the first time in months on Thursday, May 28 just to get out of my apartment. Saturday, May 30 was grocery day (no spam, yeast, or flour) and I went for a walk in the afternoon through some of the nature areas by me that connect to each other. Today, Sunday, May 31, after the daily crossword puzzles, this week’s sermon, and an egg and cheese sandwich for lunch, I took my bike out for the first time since March and went to a couple parks along the Huron River. The river itself and the main parks were pretty busy (I would say crowded, but not packed), but the wooded areas were decently quiet, minus the ever-present traffic noises.
3Also Towel Day. Don’t panic, hoopy froods.
That’s another month for the record books. The university tested reopening half a dozen buildings this past week, with check in procedures, mandatory face coverings, distancing in labs, and 30% capacity. It seemed to go pretty well, so they’re moving forward with opening more buildings, but because I do computational research, I’ll be in one of the last groups to be allowed to go back in. I don’t mind, because I’m still getting things done, and I’m waiting to see how reopening in general goes.
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