Saturday, March 14, 2020

Whirlwind of a Week

The past thirty-something hours have been quite the whirlwind of announcements and news.  We're talking about stuff that will be remembered by historians for many years to come... and as a sports card blogger, I'm mainly referring to the sports industry.

Within that window of time the NBA, MLS, and NHL seasons were suspended, NASCAR postponed a couple of races, the PGA cancelled the Player's Championship and postponed the Masters, March Madness was cancelled, Spring Training was halted, Opening Day was delayed, and plenty of other sports leagues here in the states and around the world were impacted by the coronavirus.

2019 Stadium Club Autograph #SCA-RL

This sports news is definitely an eye opening experience and kind of a bummer.  I was really looking forward to watching Ramon Laureano and my beloved Oakland A's take on the Minnesota Twins in a few weeks.

But honestly there are way more important things floating around in my head... like the health of loved ones.

My father and all of my siblings are all older than me and it's kind of stressful to think that people over the age of 60 seem to be more at risk to this virus.  There are also plenty of other family members and friends in my life who happen to be in this age group as well.  Plus one of my close friends deals with a low white blood cell count, which impacts his immune system.

I'm trying to think positively and hope we're all able to make it through this rough patch of history.

And on an even more personal level... the county I live in made the decision to close all public schools for the next three weeks starting this upcoming Monday.  According to our superintendent, teachers are on-call and should be prepared to report to work.  We are also expected to complete grading that was already in progress as well as utilize the time to plan and develop differentiated instruction in preparation for the return of our students.  And just in case you're wondering... she emphasized that we should not be taking any vacations during the three weeks without authorization from our principals.

She won't have to worry about me.  As much as I'd love to see my dad, I don't want to risk exposing him to the virus.  I'm not saying that I have been infected or exposed to it.  Outside of my seasonal allergies, I feel completely normal.  However it would be naive and irresponsible of me to put his health at risk.

In fact, I've cancelled all of my April plans, which involved trips to Portland and Las Vegas.  Hopefully things will settle down by mid-summer, so I can reschedule them.

In the meantime, I'll be spending some quality time at home.  Outside of getting my taxes done, and binge watching Das Boot on Hulu and Hanna on Amazon Prime, I don't have any other big plans.

But I'm pretty sure I will be hanging out with my cards which happen to offer up an excellent distraction from everything else that's going on in the world right now.

Maybe I'll even write and schedule a bunch of future blog posts, so that I have one less thing to worry about when I return to the classroom in a few weeks.

Well there's my current events post... and how it's impacting my life.  I hope all of you and your loved ones are able to stay healthy and positive during this interesting time in our lives.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

14 comments:

P-town Tom said...

We're shut down for two weeks. I'm hoping things start to get better before they get worse. Our first baseball game was supposed to be Monday, but now I can't even meet up with my team for a quick round of batting practice. Sigh.
Keep washing those hands, Fuji!

SumoMenkoMan said...

Stay safe!

The Angels In Order said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Angels In Order said...

Das Boot, nice choice. Stay well.

Trevor P said...

The governor shut down schools for two weeks here. We are still reporting to work for at least half of a workday every day, though. I already put all of my curriculum on an LMS, so I'm okay. I expect I'll be spending a good deal of my time at work coaching others on my team.

gcrl said...

Mostly shut down here through March. I just cancelled a trip to the bay area that was supposed to happen in late April. Hoping to be productive!

The Snorting Bull said...

I have the next two weeks off, which is then followed by my track out on my year round school schedule. Track out is three weeks, so a total of five. Going to have to find some things to do, keep the littles away from people. Hope you and your family stay safe and healthy.

bbcardz said...

It's definitely a time of making good decisions and adjustments. I work in the sports & entertainment industry and both of my jobs are kaput for who knows how long. But instead of complaining, I'm counting my blessings.

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

I noticed the news filtering into blogs lately. Schools around here are also on hiatus until April. Hope alls well with your family. It’ll be nice for all this to pass and get into summer.

The Lost Collector said...

Must be very odd for a teacher. My kids are home starting this week but we weren't given a timeframe. They came home with a large packet of work and have to spend some time on Google Classroom.

Jafronius said...

My boys are off for the next two weeks. My wife and I still have to go to work because our jobs are business essential.

I heard some clips of a Japanese baseball Home run call in an empty stadium. All of the reactions are pretty surreal.

We'll get through this...everyone needs to calm down and be kind.

Matt said...

Stay safe and healthy!

Anonymous said...

Strange times for sure. I hope you're all safe and healthy and find ways to stay occupied. It's tough not being able to see family.

Fuji said...

p-town tom - i'm the king of washing hands. maybe your team will still get together at the field and run drills without you.

sumomenkoman - you too buddy!

the angels in order - it was really good. waiting patiently for season 2 now

trevor p - i think we'll probably get called in as well. in the meantime, i'll develop curriculum for this new class i'm teaching next year

gcrl - i think a lot of people have the same idea as us. i heard that the flight was half full from vegas to san jose. it's never that empty

the snorting bull - enjoy your five weeks. hopefully everyone in your family stays healthy and you're able to entertain your kids for that amount of time

bbcardz - good attitude. i'm trying to stay positive... and keep myself busy. hopefully it'll last the entire three weeks

steve at 1975baseballcards.com - yeah, it'll be interesting to see how long things will last. our graduation and all of the end of the year field trips are on hold. i'd hate to see our 8th graders miss out on these things. but safety and health are definitely a priority

the lost collector - definitely weird. i've never been on paid leave before. but my gut tells me we'll be called in to develop curriculum or (i pray this doesn't happen) staff meetings. i know that some teachers have assigned students stuff on google classroom.

jafronius - i agree. calm and kind are the key.

sport card collectors - thanks. you too!

chris - i totally worry for my pops, but he's started to avoid the casinos and is staying more time at home. and he has enough food in his pantry and fridge to last him months. in the meantime... we'll just continue to talk to him over the phone. hope you and your family stay safe too.