Tag: COVID-19

Socially-Distanced Exercise

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec, ISO200
 “Bike and Bluebonnets” Cedar Park, 2020

Our local guidelines for living under the COVID-19 lockdown state that we are permitted to go outside for exercise, such as jogging or bicycling, and I’ve actually been doing both. Since we are supposed to stay at least 6 feet away from others, I only run on the neighborhood streets where I can easily avoid the sidewalk or go to the other side of the street. And when I go bicycling, I stick to the roads so there’s plenty of distance from pedestrians out for their walks. (I pulled my bike off the street so I could take the photo of the bluebonnets!)

For the most part, everyone has been very friendly – plenty of waves and “hello”s. Which is nice, because the reports of increased incidents of racism towards Asian-Americans have kind of kept me on-edge when I see others out in the neighborhood. Our city is pretty diverse and tolerant, but it only takes one person, right? Anyways, let’s keep it nice and cool, shall we?

Moving Back Home

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO200
 “Moving Out” Houston, 2020

Today I drove down to Houston to pick up my son from college. As with most schools, Rice is closing the dormitories and is moving all of its classes to an online format. We are fortunate that Bay’s school is close enough to reach by car (3 hours) so we could move all his things back home. For the students who need to fly home, it’s very complicated. Many had already flown home for Spring Break, and will now have to fly back to move out. In order to make it easier, the university has PODS set up by the dorms for the students to store the thing they will not take back home.

Bay’s stuff fit into the back of my car (with no room to spare!) and the trip was uneventful. But being on-campus was an eerie experience. There were only a couple of other people moving out at the same time, and they were somber and quiet. Of course we have to practice social distancing as well, so it’s a forced, awkward situation all around. Still, a college campus should be full of life and excitement, but instead was kind of a ghost town.😞

Here are a couple of more photos from the drive. Today was kind of like entering into a new kind of reality, which I suppose is the way it truly is. Take care, everyone!

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/5.6, 1/900 sec, ISO200
 “Approaching the City” Houston, 2020
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/2, 1/32000 sec, ISO200
 “Light Beams” HWY 290, 2020
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/2, 1/18000 sec, ISO200
 “Storm Clouds” HWY 290, 2020

Pandemic Disruption

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Photo info: motorola moto g(6), 3.95mm, f/1.8, 1/30 sec, ISO177
 “Fragments” Austin, 2020

COVID-19 is affecting the entire world, and soon Bay will be coming home from school. His university has decided to switch all classes for underclassmen to online, and close the resident halls except for very special cases. While this is a huge disruption for his semester, it will (hopefully) only be temporary.

But I really feel sorry for the graduating senior class. When I read the last section of the Dean’s message, I felt so sad. The senior class will not be able to spend their final weeks of collegiate life on campus with their classmates. It should be a special, once in a lifetime period of their lives, culminating in a celebration and graduation, but it has been turned upside-down by the pandemic. I understand and support the need to be cautious, but it’s still incredibly unfortunate for them. I just hope they will be able to have a graduation ceremony. 😢