Archives for March 2020

Woke up around 5.30 again, only wasted an hour or so. I did my five minutes of meditation and then the morning pages. Somehow I only started breakfast at 7.30. There might be room for improvement.

I did write a few words on my novel, though, which is very good.

Since we needed potatoes I then ventured out to the farmer’s market. My mother-in-law also wanted some plus red beets. The weather was marvelous and the market pretty full. I went around nine. I thought it would be a good idea to go earlier than usual because I was afraid they would be all out. Which turned out to be a good idea, the place where I got veggies was looking like they would close early because of lack of stock. The potato guys had a sign out:

„Because of Corona please don’t touchtone wares and keep a distance of about 1.5 meters between each other.“ It was slightly weird to see the queue winding around with people standing that wide apart. Of course the rest of the market did not adhere to the rule.There were loads of people and some children running around. I don’t think that it was risky to be there but it was interesting.

I drove my bike trailer home and went walking and running. I’m up to 1 1/2 minute running intervals again and am feeling pretty good about it:

This is where I turned around and promptly met my husband. We walked a bit together and talked until going our separate ways again. After listening to the corona podcast by a virologist and being on the market I felt much better about telling students they could come in for their lessons if they want. Today I positioned the music stands differently. Better view of each other, less chance of breathing in each others’ faces.

We had chili for lunch:

Yes, that’s parmesan. Yes, we put parmesan on almost everything in this household. It tastes good.

That afternoon about half of my students showed up. The one that should have started lessons with me yesterday called to cancel but told me they were still interested. One who came had actually seen the update on our website. One that I had counted on showing sent an email to tell that he is in quarantine because his brother just returned from Italy.

I used my time off to think about the remote teaching idea. I decided that I don’t have to have all the answers in advance and sent an email out to all the students I could saying that we are continuing lessons and that I’d try to teach via video chat all that are interested. I even gave them a choice of three different platforms.

I already got a couple of emails back. Looks like I’ll teach my very first video lesson on Friday. Via FaceTime. I’m not quite sure how and will have to research how to have the student play along with things and how to show stuff. I had already tried Zoom and that lets you share documents and your screen, you can draw on the screen and the student can too. No idea if there is something similar on FaceTime. We’ll see.

Then I helped the boy decorate his room with the sparkling lights he had bought:

(Strategic camera angle. He is straightening his room up at the moment but hasn’t finished yet. Also, the lights are currently fixed with scotch tape, we’re planning to change that to something more permanent later today.)

I did take a picture of our new sofa for my mother:

(Another strategic camera angle…)

We watched some Star Trek, I knit on the sock-in-progress, then I started this post and got ready for bed.

Today there will be an excursion to the supermarket, some teaching, some more research into teaching online and a lot of hand washing. There might be bodyweight training in the evening and some more Star Trek. I will also badger the boy about finally starting his school work. He has been a little negligent so far.

And a lot of reading the news, still.

I woke up at 5.20, was wide awake and went online yet again. Bad Susanne. Some time around seven I went into my phone’s settings, set myself a limit for when I can use it and a time limit for social media. I’m still at an hour for that one but that’s apparently better than before. I thought I was much calmed down and free of panic but then I started my usual post on Ravelry with ‚Guten Morgen‘ and it took a while for me to realize that I was posting in an English-speaking forum and what was off with this greeting. So, maybe not that calm.

I did meditate, wrote morning pages and made breakfast. No writing again. Lots of talking with my husband about the coronavirus and how to proceed with our lives. Since I had already gone to the health food store the day before I had an hour of free time which I spent updating my student list, gathering all the student email addresses and learning how to send emails to groups. In between my husband walked in and out because I was sitting there, looking as if I was on social media.

I changed the sheets on my bed, the boy had some things to discuss and then we made lunch:

My first student canceled, more talking and then I hung up a load of laundry, did the dishes and finally put away most of the clothes piled high in the master bedroom. There are still two piles, one of clothes that need mending and another one with clothes I want to cut into rags.

I taught a student and talked to her about may moving lessons online. I washed my hands thoroughly before and after the lesson, kept about 1.5 meters distance and cleaned everything we touched. I found that it is surprisingly hard to teach piano at that distance because I can’t really see the sheet music and even seeing the student’s fingers is a little hard. But well, it is what it is.

Then another short break where the boy wanted to consult me on something and another student.

Afterwards the boy and I did something we haven’t done in months – we did strength training. We used the 20-minute hotel workout by Nerd Fitness. I have to say that we gave up after 15 minutes but still, that was pretty good. Turned out that the boy is pretty fit at the moment, his regimen of 100 pushups and 100 squats each day combined with weekly climbing makes a real difference. Whereas I am in such bad shape that my shoulders are drooping again. But. We finally tried our new pull-up bar:

That thing is really good, it appears to be very sturdy, you don’t need to drill holes or something and it is easy to install, use and put away again after. Of course, there is no way I’m doing a real pull-up but the boy actually managed five or so in a row. He was pleasantly surprised saying, „Huh, that was easier than I thought it would be.“ I myself pulled up a chair, stood on that and only put as much weight on my arms as I could.
We both decided that we were doubtful about the reverse crunches and eventually skipped them.

Then there was bread and cheese for dinner and some chocolate truffles while watching an episode of Voyager. I nodded off during that and not because it was a boring episode.

The boy wanted to buy yet another video game, something his friends are playing already and that they can play together, there was a glitch with Paypal that I had to sort out, then I started writing this post and then I turned the lights out a little later than I hoped. Still before ten, though.

Today there will be running, some teaching, more research about giving lessons online and not much more. Dear Cathy whom I know through Ravelry pointed me towards an article about how to teach singing lessons online that actually answered a few of my questions. Which is very good.

I had thought I might order a lot of fabric for my project wardrobe but decided against it in the end. I still have a big pile of mending, fabric for a t-shirt and leggings and at least two sewing projects in progress right here at home. There are a few things I want to make where making muslins would be a rather good idea and I already have muslin fabric here. Judging by the rate I completed my sewing projects in the past those things will be enough to occupy me for the next two years or so, so I guess I’m good.

This is a little weird for all of us. We’ll just have to take each day as it comes, no way around it. I have to say I’m much calmer now.

I think I’m going to go back to daily blogging for the moment. These are interesting times and it might be interesting to have a record. I’m also guessing that a lot of people have more time on their hands now and a need to connect with other people – and as a bonus the journaling might help me process things.

So I woke up at 5.15 after not enough sleep because I was too hyped up to continue sleeping. At least I wasn’t as panicky as the days before, just very determined to get our online teaching going. Then I spent ninety minutes reading all kinds of stuff on the internet (not the best thing to do right away in the morning) but then I managed to meditate for five minutes and write my morning pages for the first time in ages. And I even made breakfast at a reasonable time.

I did not work on my novel, though, I still don’t have the kind of focus I need for that.

After breakfast I decided to go to the health food store. I thought there wouldn’t be a lot of people there shopping but that turned out to be, um, incorrect.

I had gone to the drugstore to get band aids (I found that the only ones we still have are the kind that I’m allergic to), rubber gloves, a brush, batteries and maybe some more toilet paper.

Well. Toilet paper was all out and rubber gloves the same.

At the health food store the lines were winding their way all through the store. Fresh veggies were almost out, the bananas I got were still green and the soap I wanted was out. Likewise canned tomatoes, rice, all pulses and pasta. It was a little insane. And no one really bothered with keeping the distance.

So I walked home with what I had gotten including some unplanned chocolate and went for my walk/run:

I’m starting to feel better with the running which is good.

I finally made my husband try the sweater on that I had almost finished the other day so I could see the fit:

And we had risotto for lunch:

After lunch I took a break, read all about the state of emergency that was declared in Bavaria today and then I proceeded to test some soft- and hardware for remote teaching.

Turned out that Zoom while pretty nice for me was way too complicated to install and use for both my husband and my son. The boy was fine with the installing and such but even he had a lot of questions about setting it up. And we couldn’t even get it to install on my husband’s computer.

My first three students canceled, the fourth one just didn’t show and the next one canceled again. So we had a total of two students show up today, one for each of us. I’m torn, on the one hand not meeting people is a very good thing at the moment, on the other having one student at a time here is way less dangerous than going to the supermarket. We kept at least 1.5 meters distance between us and the students, had everyone wash their hands thoroughly upon entering and cleaned everything anybody had touched between students. I’m sure that’s way better than touching shopping cart handles and standing in line with dozens of people.

After that I did some more research for remote teaching, installed Skype and waited for the boy to come downstairs so that we could watch Star Trek. I gave up after half an hour and had something to eat and a beer.

Today there will be more checking out of remote teaching possibilities, maybe a student, some knitting and possibly some strength training. The boy keeps saying, „I really need to use the pull-up bar,“ maybe today’s the day.