My ever-expanding pandemic journal continues, now with Part 22. I guess a lot of people have decided the pandemic is over, but alas, it is not. And now we're having a new school year with a worse pandemic and fewer protections, so that's... great. But at least the memes continue. In fact, this post is overstuffed with memes, so ... enjoy!
Tues. 27 July 2021
My downhill slide into the fall semester begins tomorrow when our friend comes to visit. But it will be a fun slide!
I’m trying to finish up some summer projects and get started on my syllabi and Canvas pages today.
Later: I got some good work done on research-type stuff (including some papers ready to submit for a special issue of a journal, which is a project several years in the making). So I turned to my syllabi.
Some of my classes this fall are "hybrid" and I was really hoping to require students to come to class once per week to discuss the material they cover online earlier in the week (i.e., what I thought "hybrid" classes were before the pandemic). But looking at recent local trends of cases per day and very slowly improving, but still inadequate, vaccination rates, now I'm not sure how to write a syllabus for these classes. Good news, I guess: now I have an epidemiological reason to procrastinate some more.
Sun. 1 Aug. 2021
Our visit with Stephen was great! Now I’m getting ready to go on my next trip to MN for CONvergence.
It looks like it is possible for vaccinated people to spread the Delta variant, but hopefully still unlikely. Up until a few weeks ago, I thought it was weird that the con was requiring both proof of vaccination and masks inside, but now I’m really glad they’re doing that.
Wed. 11 Aug. 2021
I just got home from my trip, which was great but now I’m tired. I thought about staying a day or two longer, but I decided I need a few days at home to get ready for school starting next week. At the very least I need a few more naps.
Something I posted on social media:
Some random things I noticed on today's drive: approaching Nashville and Chattanooga from the north at night is somewhat similar: you are plunging through mountain darkness until a city suddenly reveals itself. But from the south the sprawl announces the city much earlier.
Thurs. 12 Aug. 2021
Is it possible I’m dreading fall semester 2021 even more than I dreaded fall 2020?
Sun. 15 Aug. 2021
So the fall semester starts tomorrow. Until a few weeks ago, I was looking forward to it. But now, I just don’t know. I was hoping my students and I could return to some sort of thing not entirely unlike “normal,” but the local COVID cases per day are back to where they were in January or February and vaccination rates are around 50%.
It’s not that I’m as worried about getting COVID myself or getting sick or dying from it. I’m vaccinated and wearing masks when I do have to go into indoor public places, which I’m back to not doing very much. Damn, I wish I had seen more movies in the theater when I had the chance…
Speaking of not being as worried: I had a negative COVID test today! I wanted to get tested after my recent travels and attending CONvergence (3-5 days after travel is recommended). I also had a negative COVID test in Minnesota to put everyone at ease about visiting my nephew who’s too young to be vaccinated (approval for kids under 12 should be coming soon hopefully…). So, I’ve avoided it so far (as far as I know… I haven’t done the antibody test that tells you whether you’ve ever had it in the past).
Anyway… I’m less worried than I was a year ago about getting the disease myself. And due to my “liberal bubble” or whatever, I think almost everybody I know personally over the age of 12 is vaccinated, which is a genuine comfort.
I’m still worried about my students, and I’m not allowed to ask them if they’re vaccinated and the university is prohibited from requiring the vaccine. It has been hinted that we shouldn’t really even tell students they should get vaccinated or bring up masks or vaccines unless the topic is directly relevant to class topics (a confusing and weirdly chilling recommendation our admins gave due to pressure from above…). And our new mask mandate on campus is only in “instructional spaces,” which doesn’t include offices or other public areas, or even classrooms when classes are not being held. All of this madness is due to the benevolent wisdom of the Tennessee State Legislature. (Yes, that is sarcasm you see dripping from that sentence.)
Beyond even that, I’m just exhausted. I thought I could let up a little bit, but it’s going to be more of the same pandemic teaching. Every time I get a notification that a student has COVID or is in quarantine… it’s just a lot. The accumulated anxiety from those notices, which I agree are medically necessary and responsible, it adds up. I still have PTSD from receiving so many of those last year… luckily I have yet to receive any before the semester has even started, but I know they are coming. And I dread it. I dread all of it.
Having to figure out where and when to enforce mask wearing, or whether we really need to have class, or how we can do a little social distancing despite the university’s refusal to find larger rooms or how lenient to be with students who are dealing with their own shit right now. Learning about students who had bad cases of COVID that forced them to drop out of college.
So much dread, because now I have a better idea of what’s coming. As I quipped a few days ago, August 2021 is more precedented than March 2020.
It’s all a lot. And until a few weeks ago, I thought the worst of it was behind us. Sigh.
I honestly don’t know if I can handle another year of pandemic teaching, but I guess this is where we are. As I told a friend on social media today: may the odds be ever in our favor…
Mon. 16 Aug. 2021
I haven’t taught on Mondays in years, so I don’t have to go in to campus today. I still might. I have an online meeting later, which I could do from my office.
But between the news about Haiti (a large Earthquake) and Afghanistan (the Taliban taking over again as US forces leave) as well as the recent COVID surge here in the US and the nonsensical polices nonsensical politicians are forcing us to have on campus… I’m finding it hard to do much of anything today.
Later…
A student stood me up for a Zoom meeting, but I’m not going to contact them because I really want to take a nap, anyway. So I guess that’s how I’m starting this semester.
Tues. 17 Aug. 2021
I got my first notification that a student is in quarantine. I'm surprised it took this long. On one hand I'm glad to get these because it means our system is working for these students, but on the other hand these notifications are always a bummer that points at the larger horror we're all living through.
Later: turns out that student and their roommate both tested positive. I hope they’ll be okay. This is not making me super excited to have in person classes on Thursday.
Another thought: in my travels in recent weeks, aside from the Con, which had an enforced mask mandate, and one grocery store I went to in the middle of a weekday, I don’t think I noticed more than about 50% mask use anywhere I went in several states. And doing some errands here today, it was about the same. I realize most people don’t really follow the news and maybe they really did miss the recent CDC guidelines. I also realize that all that time I and most people I know were avoiding restaurants and staying home, the majority of people in the US … just sort of went about their lives as if things were normal. But still … what’s going on? Do people not realize how serious this is? Do they not care? Are they just tired? I don’t understand.
Wed. 18 Aug. 2021
Well, another student in the same class is in quarantine. Since this class only has 19 students and they’re part of a cohort who all live in the same building, I decided to just do class on Zoom tomorrow for that section. (I got talked into taking one of the business college cohort classes due to the promise of a smaller class size…) I’m also increasingly worried about my other class, which is scheduled in a room that will be too small for all of them to socially distance. In fact, instead of allowing for social distancing, the administration actually added more students without changing to a larger room. (sigh.)
The hybrid things seemed like a good idea when I thought we’d be in better shape this fall… you know, up until a few weeks ago…
In other news, my totally online class is going really smoothly so far!
Thurs. 19 Aug. 2021
First day of meeting students on Zoom and in person. Yikes/Exciting!
Later: In the Before Times I used to genuinely enjoy being on campus. Until a few weeks ago, I thought we might get some of that back, but after walking around campus today with our nonexistent vaccine mandate and our nonsensical mask policy (only in "instructional spaces" while instruction is happening), I guess I will be spending a lot of time with the door closed in my windowless office down an unfindable hallway (my own private windowless monad).
All this and I haven’t even taught in person yet. That’s at 5pm after a super fun faculty senate meeting. My Zoom meeting went okay, because it’s the cohort class that all knows each other.
Sun. 22 Aug. 2021
Getting ready for week two. Here’s something I just posted on social media.
Last week was the first week of class for the fall semester. I'm teaching one 100% online class, which is going just fine. I also have two hybrid classes, meaning half online and half in person. I had three students in quarantine in the same class, which is a cohort class of business students that all live in the same building, so I moved the in person session online last week. In the other hybrid class the university added eight students to my roster but did not move us to a larger room. It was okay-ish considering we're making no provisions for social distancing, but only because several students didn't show up. Meanwhile, our local COVID numbers are far worse than they were this time last year, while we are doing far less to protect students, staff, and faculty. And the university administration is giving us apocalyptic gloom-and-doom not about this historic public health crisis that is changing our lives forever, but about a 2% reduction in enrollment this semester (as if not offering enough pool parties and other maskless campus events, rather than the aforementioned life-altering public health crisis, is driving some students away from college right now). I'm vaccinated and wearing a mask indoors, so I'm less worried about getting sick myself than I was at this time last year, but it's hard to get excited about week two of this semester.
Thurs. 26 Aug. 2021
I’m on campus today for my in-person classes. I was also on campus yesterday, and walked over to the library. Here’s something I posted on social media yesterday:
I try to be compassionate toward all sentient beings, but I also wonder why it's so fucking hard for some people to wear their masks so they cover their goddamn noses.
One update: On Monday we got the announcement that our on campus mask mandate is now for all indoor spaces rather than just instructional spaces. People aren’t quite 100% compliant yet, but it’s already a lot better than it was last week.
Tues. 31 Aug. 2021
It’s the end of my last month of being 44. My birthday is coming up in a few weeks. Weird to think I’ll be 45. I mean, not mathematically. I know how counting works. If we weren’t in the middle of a massive COVID surge maybe I would plan some sort of get together with friends at a bar. Oh, well.
Speaking of a massive COVID surge, Hamilton County once again exceeded our record for number of COVID hospitalizations for the second time in the last week (currently 289 people are hospitalized for COVID). That’s a record for the entire pandemic so far. Meanwhile we had 457 new cases today (about where we were in early January), our rate of fully vaccinated people is about 45%, and there is no county-wide mask mandate like we had last year (I think state-wide mandates are illegal care of our illustrious Governor). So… yeah. That’s all great.
Last week we went to a friend’s house for a gathering with all fully vaccinated people, but otherwise I’m pretty much back in lockdown mode, just occasionally going to campus where I spend most of my time in my office with the door closed and once in a while I go inside Walgreens to buy snacks and pick up prescriptions. We usually do curbside pick-up for groceries. I still try to take walks most days, heat and rain permitting.
The other day I finished some abstract thoughts about the pandemic based on the 11th century Buddhist philosopher Ratnakīrti (see here and here).
The first draft of my Dune and Philosophy chapter is due Sept. 7, and it’s coming along nicely. I should make the deadline. Pre-pandemic I always used to take Fridays as my “research day,” but I’ve found that carving out some time mid-week works well given the rhythms of my current mostly online teaching schedule (online teaching requires more prep up front, so I can’t put it all off until Sunday and Monday like I used to). My edited collections are finally coming together, along with some other things I’ve had in the works since the Before Times. Soon I will hopefully have no new projects, and it will be glorious to behold for a while until I think of something new.
Speaking of new things, in the spring I’m hoping to teach my Intro to Asian Philosophy (hopefully online) and a Topics in World Philosophy on Mesoamerican (Aztec and Maya) Philosophy (hopefully hybrid). Hopefully they’ll let me do that. I’m not thrilled about teaching in person (unless things get much better by January), but figured I would do a hybrid course to appease administrative (legislative?) mandates about teaching in person amid gloom and doom about enrollment and funding (rather than, you know, the serious public health crisis). And I will be sure to request a larger room, so things don’t sneak up on me like they did this semester.
Thurs. 2 Sept. 2021
I’m sitting in my campus office with the door closed, reading the latest county COVID numbers, getting ready to teach an in-person section, hoping a lot of students don’t show up so those present can socially distance, thinking about the students currently in quarantine, and starting to seriously ask myself when I should switch those classes to fully online without asking anyone’s permission.
Tues. 7 Sept. 2021
I've been enjoying the new Iron Maiden album. I was thinking it sounds like the band is having a lot of fun, which sounds cheesy, but I mean, it probably IS fun being Iron Maiden!
Sun. 12 Sept. 2021
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of 9/11. I’m never quite sure what to feel on this day. It was a tragedy for the thousands of people that died that day, but that makes it no less a tragedy for the many thousands and thousands more that died due to US military actions, including in Afghanistan where the US war just recently ended. And on top of that ambivalence, there’s the fact that many Americans are saying “never forget,” while seemingly forgetting the almost 700,000 Americans who have died from COVID and those still dying today. It’s all… a bit much.
In a few days I’m going to GenCon, a huge gaming convention. The con itself is in Indianapolis and I’m meeting some friends from Minnesota. We’ve been trying to go together for a few years (we didn’t get our shit together in 2019 and then 2020… well, was 2020). I’ve almost canceled by trip a few times due to COVID concerns. There’s still a small chance I might have to cancel. But I think I’ll go for the following reasons.
· The con itself is requiring masks at all times. They can’t require vaccines due to Indiana state law, but according to a poll about 90% of con goers are vaccinated. They are also limiting attendance to about half and instituting social distancing as much as possible. Still, I might skip a few things just to minimize my exposure.
· I’m driving instead of flying, and can make minimal stops. (I’m renting a minivan to drive us around in town when I get there, but it will be weird to drive since I’m used to normal cars).
· I’m staying in an AirBnB with my vaccinated friends rather than a crowded hotel.
· The Indianapolis area is, while not doing great with COVID, doing better than the Chattanooga area. So I may be actually slightly safer there. And even in the giant convention center, I may be safer than I am on campus at UTC.
· I had a negative COVID test today, and I will do another one 3-5 days after I get home. (Similar to what I did when I went to Minnesota for CONvergence.)
I don’t know. I’m still a bit ambivalent about it. I’m sure it will be a great time. But it’s hard to get as excited about big public events like this these days. I leave Wednesday, so I guess we’ll see in a few days.
Mon. 13 Sept. 2021
Here are the latest numbers.
Worldwide
Cases: 226,084,595
Deaths: 4,652,269
US
Cases: 42,140,103
Deaths: 680,274
Hamilton County, TN
Cases: 58,652
Deaths: 583
(Note: the more disturbing numbers lately are our hospitalization numbers. We’ve been breaking records for numbers of people hospitalized during the entire pandemic on regular basis the last couple weeks. Currently there are 377 people hospitalized for COVID in Hamilton County. This number was in the lower 200’s at the previous height of the pandemic in January 2021.)
Worldwide fully vaccinated: 30.1%
US full vaccinated: 54.4%
Hamilton county at least partially vaccinated: 53% (everyone), 61.5% (12 and up)
Hamilton county fully vaccinated: 47.3% (everyone), 54.9% (12 and up)
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