Day 13.081: Back to the beach

On Saturday, after a negative test result for the novel coronavirus, we lifted our self-isolation and returned to social distancing with a trip to the beach. It was lovely to get out!

Day 13.080: Last snow - take 2

As we now know, this was not the last of the snow in our yard, but maybe this - the remains of E5N1's snow BB-8 - will turn out to be:

There were still a few other patches of snow when I took this yesterday, but last night we had some exciting thunderstorms, possibly some hail and lots of relatively warm rain, so all traces of snow were gone by this morning.

Day 13.079: Exile #2's Sunday Column #291

Exile #2 writes...

Today was a rainy day. We spent it churching online, playing games and watching movies. Yesterday, however, was a different matter. The temperature was warm (for Maine in March) and we walked and sat outside, waving at people from a distance and soaking in the sun. Here is E5N1 enjoying the deck, which up until that morning had still been covered in snow.

Day 13.078: Lobsterman safety in the time of COVID-19

Having been released from our strict quarantine by the breaking of our fevers and a negative coronavirus test, Exile #3 and I ran an errand in Portland related to one of her college applications. Portland was extremely quiet and the few people we saw seemed to be taking social distancing seriously.

As we were setting off for home, we spotted that even the Maine Lobsterman statue was taking extra precautions in this time:

Day 13.077: Spring snow doesn't last long

I said when we got our six inches of snow on Monday night that "at least it won't last long." Even so, I was surprised when I saw how much of the snow had gone this afternoon - here are what's left of the two snow creations along with what passes at this time of year for a lawn.

Amazingly, there's even a hint of green.

Day 13.076: Dance studio (home edition)

The basement has become my office and the karate dojo, the dining room is E5N1's classroom and - this week - one end of the living room became a dance studio. We're making isolation work!

Day 13.075: Ocean view

Although we are keeping ourselves in our own house and yard except for Exile #4's daily walk to the mailbox, we still had an ocean view in the form of the jigsaw puzzle that Exile #2, E5N1 and I have been making gradual progress on:

and this afternoon, Exile #2 and E5N1 put the last pieces in and took a photo to celebrate:

When I arrived, E5N1 recreated the moment for a "making-of" behind the scenes view:

Day 13.074: When life gives you snow...

...and it did...

...make snowmen (or to be more accurate a snow droid - BB8 by E5N1, and a snow dinosaur - by Exile #4):

Exile #3 judged the sculptures while doing homework - who would you have awarded the win to?

Day 13.073: We were not prepared for this

One of the things the arrival of COVID-19 has done is distract us from obsessing about the weather - so tonight's snow storm caught us - if not entirely by surprise - at least less prepared than normal.

Weirdly, until recently, I was growing increasingly confident that I'd caught the last of the snow cover back on Day 13.062.

On the other hand, since we've no place to go... let it snow!

Day 13.072: Exile #2's Sunday Column #290

Exile #2 writes...

Despite our continued quarantine, we had a surprisingly sociable day, catching up with friends near and far through online church, FaceTime, email and such., and wishing our Mums a Happy Mother’s Day, even in the current circumstances. We spent the rest of the day in other fairly quiet pursuits: playing some music, doing a jigsaw

and in E5N1's case, racing to finish reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix so that we could watch the movie in the evening.

Day 13.071: Online submission

Exile #3's latest painting was due to be submitted yesterday. Because of the current situation, she was given some extra time and - of course - can only submit a photograph of it. She decided to stick with the original deadline having done extensive battle with it and eventually being happy with it.

Of course, since it isn't going to school, we can have it here - so we found a temporary location for it and it looks pretty good:

Day 13.070: Quarantine blocks progress

In the how to stay sane during self-isolation files Exile #2 found a 30 day Lego building challenge. Here are the results of Exile #2 and E5N1's first two days:

A Pokemon-themed roller-coaster:

and a rocket launch:

Day 13.069: ...in Minecraft?

Exile #4's sensei challenged them to do a karate kata somewhere unusual and since we're housebound, where better than in a virtual world?

I only had darkness to use for compositing, but maybe I'll work on a "green screen" of some sort for the next attempt. It was a fun technology experiment anyway!

Day 13.068: Remote...everything

Today was day 2 of remote working for me and home-schooling (2020 quarantine style) for the Exiles. Most of the day, the girls spent working in their rooms and E5N1 did a good job for the second day in a row of settling down to work at the dining table.

After lunch, two of them had some much needed outdoor time:

and after dinner, Exile #4 had her first virtual karate class:

This is a technology practice week for Exile #3's video-conference dance classes which start next week - we're making it work!

Day 13.067: Quarantine notification

With the kids home from school and all their groups and classes on hold or moved on-line, it was beginning to feel like we were on lock down. My regular messages in my work email about "quarantined messages" began to take on a different meaning:

However, thanks to two of us having developed a mild fever today, we are actually under doctor's orders to quarantine ourselves in case it is a case of the current pandemic. No strong indication that it is at the moment, but better safe than sharing.

Day 13.066: Blurry birding

I spotted some birds out to sea as we walked back along the beach on Saturday. The photos won't be winning any prizes, but they are good enough to identify what we saw (mostly at least):

Some common eider:

and these - possibly long-tailed ducks:

I took some similarly distant blurry photos of a lot of black ducks swimming near the eider sufficient to identify them as black scoters, but I finally took some half-decent photos when some of them took to the air:

Day 13.065: Exile #2's Sunday Column #289

Exile #2 writes...

What a week it’s been. I hope you are well and generally hanging in there. Exile #1 helped with the technical side of turning our church service into an online only affair this morning.

The rest of the on-site team (Ed)

Tomorrow, school will also go online as everything shuts down for two weeks. After school activities will try to do the same. The food pantry where I volunteer is changing its procedures to help keep people as far apart as possible.

We cheered ourselves up this afternoon with a very silly game of reverse charades (one person guesses, everyone else acts at the same time), some tasty soul food (pork and collards) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

We are very grateful for family, friends and neighbors who are providing healthcare, and for those who are going to extraordinary lengths to adapt what they do in order to allow some semblance of normality to remain.

Day 13.064: Social distancing at the beach

Four of us practiced our social distancing with some cheery greetings from more than six feet away from other walkers at the beach this afternoon:

Exile #3 was even more distant - safely at home working on her painting and other homework.

It turned out to be a really beautiful afternoon - breezy, but sunny and surprisingly warm.

Exile #4 pointed out the beautiful sky gradient:

and also found a rare surf clam that hadn't been eaten by the gulls yet:

She put it in the water, so there's a chance it will have escaped before it became somebirdy's dinner.

Day 13.063: Dance leaves a mark

Exile #3 regularly brings pieces of art home - but usually it is from her art classes at school not from dance class. This week she brought this home - that she had made as part of a dance improvisation where she danced on the paper while also drawing on it.