The Devil is in the Details...

Details of what?
Day to day life in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic...
Mine is like yours. No details that make it special. I've got the white picket fence in middle America, with a dog and 2.5 kids - All on LockDown. Just like you.

1 of those kids is able to handle her business in the digital realm of distance learning like a trained professional. We rarely see her except when she emerges from her lair for chesse sticks or strawberries. Occasionally she'll join us for a family board game or to force us to watch her weird Vampire shows. But overall, she's going with the swing of things and seems to be handling things much better than the pater familias.

You would think that the other kid would be loving life without the strains of four walls and a classroom. He's made for the outdoors. His new found hobby of outdoor photgraphy falls right in his wheelhouse. To me a walk in the woods should suffice as a weeks worth of biology lessons - better than any textbook or online video chat could offer. But the MN Department of Education doesn't see it that way. So, ISD#139 keeps throwing ZOOM classes, Schoology Lessons, Google Classroom notes and at least 15 emails a day at our 7th grade, Total Outdoorsman. And he's drowning in it.

I feel for the Dude because I'm not adjusting very well myself. This isn't how he learns and it's not how I teach but it's the challenge we've been presented and attack it we must. Daily, I diligently host a two hour open window of online video conferencing with whichever 4th graders decide to join me. Naturally, it's the same 7-8 kids evey day and mediating two hours of small talk with 9 year olds proves difficult. I've gotten better at focussing our discussions towards sharing and a little homework guidance. But being glued to a chair, staring down a desktop camera - careful to reply to any staff emails in less than 59 minutes as instructed by our administartion is potentially a violation of the Geneva Conventions rules on torture.

I need a gobbler to holler in the distance or to feel the tug on the other end of a fishing pole soon. Both are just around the corner. So, I'll wait patiently. In the meantime, I tiptoe past my better half who is navigating work from abroad herself. The whole nature of her job description fits right in with this Social Distancing well as does her introverted ways. I admire my lovely wife knocking out Kettle Bell sessions with her gym buddies on opposite ends of a video screen and think that she must actually prefer things this way. Shopping online has always been a source of joy at her fingertips but this lockdown seems to have her Leveled Up in the next round of Jumanji. Involuntarily, I've signed up for a League of "You're not Doing it Right" - of which there can be no winner. But I love her to pieces. When we're able to get out for a walk at least once a day, I'm eventually centered and reminded how grateful I am to be married to my Dream Woman.

Netflix is an addiction that Uncle Sam will have to address once this all passes. Gay Tigers and Beautiful Vampires, Australian lifeguards and Loud-mouthed fishermen... a world of mindless distraction is out our fingertips. Thankfully we can all usually come together for some family time around the TV screen.

And Raider - the old fella loves having the whole pack together. He'll curl up at your feet when you need a friend during your 3rd online chat of the day. He'll retrieve every thrown ball and happily join you on a shelter-in-place approved walk around town. Raider's got it made. He doesn't have any job description tying him down.

I lost count of what day we're on in Quarantine... probably for the better....a number is just a detail. And who cares really?
The Devil is in the details.