Dean at Home: The Pandemic Blog

 Vaccination Day Tonight's soundtrack: The Tony Williams Quintet, Germany, 1989 This morning, The New York Times tells us, at  9 am, in Long Island Jewish Medical Center , the hospital where my brother works, the first person in the US (outside of the vaccine trials) was given the Covid-19 vaccine. I wonder if we will look back at this as the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Granted, it may take a very long time for vaccine supplies to filter down through the healthcare workers, the elderly in nursing homes, and all the other high risk individuals and essential workers before it reaches the rest of the general population, but nevertheless it is a bright note in a concerning moment where even the rural communities in Western Massachusetts are seeing a resurgence that have shut public offices, caused restaurants to pivot again, and moved grade schools back online. That's Franklin. I was talking with a colleague this morning and she talked about how what just a few weeks ago...

 Atlanta Family Tonight's soundtrack: Haochen Zhang, Beethoven Sonata in A-flat major, Op. 110, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, 2009 I talked with my parents over Zoom last night and they shared the travails of one of my aunts in Atlanta who, in pre-pandemic times, had a dry cleaning business in one of the downtown high-rise buildings. Of course, since the pandemic, business has dropped off dramatically and she is open only one day a week now. To augment her income she has started working in the kitchen of longterm care facility. It is hard work, and with subsequent outbreaks in the facility, at times there are a shortage of workers, and the long hours become longer. She has also learned that sometimes the ambulance comes to the front door, and sometimes the ambulance goes to the back door. Everyone comes when you turn 100. I remember this aunt fondly. I went to visit her years ago and stayed at her house while attending a conference. Before Vietnamese cuisine had spre...

 The Little Things Tonight's soundtrack: Prince, Live in Switzerland, 2013 Today was one of those days where you somehow catch the corner of your thumbnail on something and bend it a little... twice. There was no good reason for it, my nails are appropriately trimmed, and the second time I was doing nothing more innocuous than hanging my cardigan on a hanger. But now there's a little crease in the corner of my thumb nail and it is starting to look a little discolored.  Sometimes things happen for no good reason.  Then, there are other things that happen for no real reason, but they give rise to an opportunity to see something you don't ordinarily get to see. This afternoon I traveled to the University to pick up my new mouse that was delivered to one office, and my keyboard that was held at another, so as part of my errand I had the opportunity to explore the inner bowels of the physical plant building. Seeing a college or university's physical plant is like getting to ...

No Crystal Ball  Tonight's soundtrack: Tribute to Miles Davis by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, with Wallace Roney, 1992 I sat in tonight on a presentation by the Provost at UMass about the current state of the budget... except, because my standing desk arrived today at lunch, I stood for the meeting! In any case, it was interesting to try imagining how to plan for possible budget implications on such a large scale. There were several questions from audience members trying to parse out the implications for changes that might occur in the not too distant future. But really, how can anyone anticipate what the future will bring in this kind of environment? Everything that we know as stable and predictable in our institutions of higher education, our grocery stores, and our households is uncertain. It is hard to tell what the impacts of the pandemic will have on the businesses we engage in, the institutions who employ us, the restaurants we frequent or av...