Falling through Fall

Fall has come to Michigan and winter is just around the corner, but for a month we enjoyed cool temperatures and fall colors. The big news for the month was that the university’s safe and public health informed semester was derailed by a 2-week Stay in Place order for the undergrads issued by the county. After three straight weeks of increasing case numbers (144, 226, and 401 cases), Washtenaw County instructed all undergrads to remain in their dorm rooms/apartments/houses with no gatherings for two weeks to get things under control. However, they’re still allowed to attend class (though more classes are supposed to switch to remote instruction), get food, vote, go to religious activities, and participate in physical activity outdoors with no more than one other person, so we’ll see how much this order does.

Again, the numbers are not so horrible that people should be planning their wills and locking themselves in bunkers, but hundreds of confirmed cases every week when you’re undertesting means that you’re running the risk of 1) spreading cases off campus (Washtenaw County hasn’t really seen this yet, but the city is already not happy with how U-M reopened this fall) and 2) having something seriously bad happen to someone (still not likely given the hospitalization and mortality rates for college-aged people, but even rare events occur given enough attempts). Other fun stories from the university: With over half of quarantine and isolation housing full, they ran out of space in unoccupied buildings and started putting people in apartments in the same buildings that students had signed normal contracts for this school year. An entire dorm was supposed to be “enhanced social distancing” (semi-quarantine, where they could get food but weren’t going to class or otherwise leaving their rooms) even before the Stay in Place order because of the number of cases there. The news of the Stay in Place order first broke on Twitter, and was picked up by the U of M subreddit before the official university email.

So that’s what’s been going on at the university. I’m avoiding central campus and otherwise carrying on as I have been. I’ve been doing variations on the same things for the past seven months, so I’m arranging this post by activity instead of date, which also helps to obfuscate the exact date of my birthday, because it was my birthday month. Here’s what I did:

Birthday cupcake

Tuned into Zoom University to watch a department seminar given by a Cornell ChemE professor. My years at Cornell overlapped almost exactly with a period of time he wasn’t teaching, so I never had him as a professor, but I knew who he was.

Watched the Revolution play Nashville to a scoreless draw in their first meeting, lose to Toronto in a moderately controversial game, take points from NYCFC at Yankee Stadium, gamble a bit by putting out their B team against an admittedly struggling Montreal and come away with all three points, lose to Philadelphia (again) for the same old reasons, tie Nashville (again) after a weather delay in Tennessee, and lose to the Red Bulls to close out the month.

Baked pumpkin cranberry bread, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (currently hanging out in the freezer for a future date), and chocolate cupcakes for my birthday. The recipe said no mixer necessary, but the last step was also to beat the batter on high for a minute, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Because I didn’t get enough air into the batter, I substituted applesauce for oil, or my baking soda is extremely expired (I don’t think it’s this – I’ve baked plenty of other things with it that have risen fine), I didn’t get a great rise and the crumb structure was tight. But it’s 2020, so weird dense spongy cake it is. Still tasted good.

Finally made it to the dentist. I was supposed to go in March or April but close contact activities where one person has their mouth open the whole time weren’t encouraged under coronavirus restrictions, for whatever reason. They’re avoiding aerosolized procedures so they didn’t do everything that typically gets done but I got the plaque scraped off my teeth at least.

The Huron River, Barton Nature Area

Celebrated my birthday weekend by biking/hiking across Ann Arbor. I went to a nature center, the arboretum, and the botanical gardens; biked on the Border to Border; and explored some new trails.

Watched old 90s TV, including Star Trek: The Next Generation and some episodes of The Magic School Bus for my amusement. I also saw The Addams Family (the 1991 movie) just in time for Halloween.

We’re heading into a stretch of holidays and events that will include Halloween, election day, Thanksgiving, colleges sending students home for the year, Christmas, and New Years as coronavirus cases rise to record levels across the country and hospitalizations range from increasing to reaching critical levels. And for some added fun, throw flu season into the mix. I have no plans to travel or gather with anyone for the foreseeable future. I will be starting to put my various socks, mittens, hats, and jackets to work as temperatures drop and I trade mosquito bites and poison ivy for frostbite and black ice. And if it’s really too bad to go outside, I’ve got lots of unread textbooks to enjoy.