COVID-19 - School Closure - Day 152
Orientation Day for NN at TKA yesterday. She got her student ID, met some new friends and retrieved her textbooks for the coming school year. And with that... it kicked off my efforts to clean the house in preparation for school restarting. As I started picking up our mess... I started tearing... starting crying... and started bawling.
5 months have gone by.... Zoom. Google Classroom. Distance Learning. PE in the garage. Scanning and submitting homework. Followed by a strict summer curriculum of Khan Academy. Those nightly struggles of learning and practicing Chinese. NN's 5th grade Reading Comprehension workbook. The failed attempt at an Economics Lesson. And of course.. those trusty Costco Notebooks.
You blink... and it's gone. 5 months of precious family time. Cooking breakfast. Before they swallowed their last mouthful... you start thinking about lunch. And right after lunch is served, "Bah-B, what's for dinner?"
That pizza that big bro delivered. Ordering delivery from Cheesecake Factory for Joyce's bday. The Wing Stop that came on SW's bday. Mother's Day spent eating cold, wet sandwiches outside Grace's house. Followed by Dad coming in for Father's Day.
Tuesday nights of carving up Amazon cardboard boxes for recycling. Binge watching Slamdunk... followed by the Amazing Race.. then Perfect Strangers.. followed by Full House and then Fuller House.
Calling PAL chicken for cancelling CNY. Making door hangers with the kids. Planning a Evangelistic Meeting for CS - which was cancelled before it even started. Countless Prayer Meetings and FOTA. Youtubing our pre-recorded Sunday Service with dad posting on the boards every Sunday. Followed up by dad joining us for Saturday morning Bible Study.
Ping Pong. HIIT. Running a 10 minute mile. Badminton. Followed by touch football on our artificial front lawn. And back to badminton.
Google Hangout playdates. Pokemon Go...that led right into Brawl Stars... that swung back to Pokemon Go... to finally getting a Switch and Animal Crossing and eventually... flipping Double Dragon (with a little bit of modern day technology's help).
Beach Day... followed by another beach day... and another... until we finally hit the jackpot of 90 degree weather. Only to walk into wildfires all across the Bay Area leaving a scent of soot and smoke in the air.
I was bawling... cuz everything slipped by and we did not capture these moments. 10-15 years from now... everyone will have their version of what happened. But just like the earthquake of '89... or 9/11.... or whatever monumental event of your generation... they will all slip away. Like the sand from a beach through your fingers. Where you can only wish and hope... your fingers did not have holes for the memories to leak.
Why didn't I spend more time capturing memories....?? And then I scroll up... and realize... 152 days later... I did capture these moments in time.
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