Corona Virus Changes our Lifestyle

Although the corona virus was in the news about the first of 2020, we were not significantly impacted by it until March when it began to spread in the United States.

A major impact on us began toward mid March. Rod went to Georgia State University on Friday, March 13 to meet with the laboratory group for the Physics of Music and Speech, a course which he initiated in 1970 and taught for 45 years. He met regularly with the two laboratory groups on a volunteer basis each week and enjoyed working with the two lab instructors Michael Nelson and Anthony Hodges. At that point the University faculty had already been notified that there would be a two week suspension of classes in view of the virus. Rod was pleased to have gone in on that day for the lab - a good experience with the five students out of probably 16 who showed up for the lab.

Monday, March 16, was the beginning of Spring Break for Georgia State, and at that time we did not know how long the suspension of classes would continue. But because of the rapid increase in the number of virus infections in the US, we decided to stay at home, and the phrases "shelter in place" and "social distancing" became a part of our vocabulary.

For the next two weeks, we just stayed at home! Brenda had a medical test on Tuesday March 17, Rod went out to Post Office and grocery on March 19, and for groceries again on March 22. But otherwise we were at home. Marty made a couple of grocery runs for us. I would have to say in retrospect that I enjoyed those two weeks at home with Brenda. I plunged into sending illustrations from HyperPhysics to Manuel Olmo in Seville, Spain where he was likewise staying at home. The rate of infection in Spain at that time was greater than ours and he was in lockdown. Brenda spent more time watching the news and kept me informed about the processes in response to the virus.

April 11

With the whole population of the Earth trembling in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, nature was still celebrating spring with beautiful new growth and beautiful blue skies.

Sunday, April 12

With all churches and schools and most everything else shut down for mitigation of the corona virus spread, our Easter Sunday worship service for Mableton First Baptist Church was by Livestream. We had some music with Ryan Ayers and a message by Pastor Ian Bowers. Our worship location was sitting at our kitchen table with the ipad. Note that 58 locations are signed in live.

With the time zone change, we could then go to the service of Jeff and family's church, Northshore Church in Slidell, Louisiana. When we connected there, Andrew Ogea and MaryBeth were leading in a song, presumably from Andrew's house with him sitting on his piano bench.

Since there was a live chat line, we posted up greetings. It turned out that Jeff was the Host that morning, so he responded to our post.

Pastor Larry McEwen brought the Easter Sunday Morning message from the fireplace in his home, and it was of surprisingly sharp resolution since it was being videoed with a phone.

We were given notice that we would celebrate the Lord's Supper in our homes at the end of the service, and we happened to have a small bottle of grape juice that we had bought for Jeff on their Mardis Gras visit. So with that and a small piece of bread we enjoyed celebrating remotely with Jeff and family and their church on Easter morning!

Later we had the pleasant surprise of a group Facetime call from Jeff and family, a call set up by Jordan. That was indeed a pleasure to be able to talk with all of them.