Editor’s note: Karen Harris Tully is a writer who lives in Raymond and has agreed to keep a journal to share with Daily World readers during the odd and uncertain time we’re all navigating.
Dear Journal:
I’ve taken a few weeks away from you and some stuff’s gone down. That’s the understatement of 2020. Where to even begin? It’s fall now, a gorgeous fall day and I’m writing this outside to try to soak up the last rays of summer before the rains start again. My tomatoes are finally turning red. Bugs have been destroying the beans and broccoli, despite my efforts with the neem oil, but I keep trying.
The kids are back in home school, with Grammie at the helm, and next week they’re going back to school two days a week, which in itself feels like a leap of faith. We, like many people probably, got a summer cold a few weeks ago, and had to send my son and husband to Willapa Harbor Hospital for drive-through testing. Had we caught this thing we’d been trying so hard to avoid? While we’re making the effort to mask, wash and sanitize, we’re not perfect.
Our 7-year-old son was a trooper, the long swab no big deal to him, especially with ice cream, and the results came back the same day, within hours. ‘Negative’ was never such a happy word to hear over the phone. But, how many families have gone through this stress, only to hear the words ‘positive’, and ‘quarantine’? Going back to school, how many times will we have to do this? For every cold that comes through? And I wonder how long until the school has a positive case, and what happens then? The whole class/pod goes back to homeschool, I think. I’m fairly certain quarantine is going to become something many of us are intimately acquainted with this fall and winter. We’ll get through it, but I’m worried, mostly for the kids’ grandparents, and for any local families with immune-compromised members. For anyone who still doubts, over 200,000 deaths in seven months is not any kind of normal flu.
I know the schools are watching the numbers. I know they’re doing the best they can for everyone, with a/b schedules, masks and pods, extensive cleaning, and lunches in the classroom. They have a new door thermometer at Raymond Jr/Sr High that automatically takes everyone’s temperature as they walk through the door, and sets off an alarm if someone reads too high. I hope it all works. But it has still not been an easy decision to send our kids back amid a pandemic, even with every precaution. We are moving forward into the unknown, but that’s life. Here we go.
Song of the day: “Summer’s End,” John Prine, who passed from covid in April.
Karen Harris Tully is a novelist living in Raymond with her husband and two small children. She writes sci-fi/fantasy for teens and adults and can be found at www.karenharristully.com.
