The escalation continues
So...look who has nowhere to go on Saturday.
My boss' work thing was canceled.
My work thing was canceled.
Within an hour's time this afternoon, both of those happened. A few hours later, JB Pritzker, Illinois' governor, asked that gatherings of 250 people or more be postponed, and gatherings of 1000 people or more be outright canceled.
I know how much work was put into our two things on Saturday. In fact, I had already started prepping for it today, as I knew I would have to bring a bunch of stuff (I was to have two tables of assorted paraphernalia), which I wasn't exactly looking forward to because it would involve me alone schlepping all this stuff into and out of my venue, but it would have involved hundreds of people, so it had to stop. My boss' work thing, all told, probably would have involved closer to the 1000 number. He works on this all year. He had items made for it, some of which got delivered today. In essence, there are keynote speakers for this event who come in from around the country, even the world in past years. Part of it is also ticketed, so once he found out from the venue that they were no longer holding it, he had to start sending emails and making phone calls. It kind of put us all on edge this afternoon, since stuff kept dropping. It made me really tense and I'm pretty exhausted right now, to be honest.
Also, the radio station we listen to typically does a newscast every few hours, but today, it was every hour, which was weird. I heard one at 11 AM, when normally I'd hear one at noon, and wondered if someone had messed up the time change. Nope, heard it at noon, too, and at 1, and 2, and 3. It was the 2 o'clock one that had the anecdote that North Central was suspending in-person classes through the rest of the semester. Oh, wow. I was pretty floored by that. I did reach out to Dr. K but haven't heard anything; I imagine things are pretty chaotic on his end. The thing is, for him, I don't know that he teaches any classes that can be taught remotely. How can you do band remotely? How can you learn conducting remotely? Would those students have to record themselves or Skype or something? Really weird. I'd gotten an email from the school as well, keeping alumni informed, which gave a link to a website where they have various information listed. Students can stay on campus, though if they decide to go home early, there might be a pro-rating of their room and board, but it would take some time to figure out.
You kind of hope it blows over soon. Maybe if we keep to ourselves for the next couple weeks, the sick people will get over their illnesses and the rest of us will stay healthy. I'm wondering about band, too--I hadn't seen it before rehearsal on Monday, but the band president had emailed us to say, if you're sick, stay home. We sit in such close proximity that it's not fair to expose the rest of us to anything, especially given that we do have a decent-sized population over 60. That's the age group mentioned during the press conference the governor and other officials held at 5 PM today, conveniently during the evening news. Considering that's my parents' age group, that does concern me a bit.
Part of me would be okay if everyone got isolated for two weeks. Mini-vacation of sorts. I don't have a job where I can telecommute; I have to be there in person. It's our slow season, so I don't know that my boss would cut hours or anything; we have a small staff already. It's not like we're normally busy this time of year and all of a sudden things will drop off. I do worry about our room renters, though. They're the ones most likely to be affected. Nobody's said anything as of yet, but I'm sure people are thinking about it. Our lead renter already has disinfectant wipes and things and has already been proactive; perhaps the others will follow suit. And my boss was able to go to his local pharmacy and he picked up some disinfectant-type things so that we can try to be proactive as a business, wiping down tables and door handles and whatnot. That's about all we can do at this point. Here's hoping we stay healthy.
My boss' work thing was canceled.
My work thing was canceled.
Within an hour's time this afternoon, both of those happened. A few hours later, JB Pritzker, Illinois' governor, asked that gatherings of 250 people or more be postponed, and gatherings of 1000 people or more be outright canceled.
I know how much work was put into our two things on Saturday. In fact, I had already started prepping for it today, as I knew I would have to bring a bunch of stuff (I was to have two tables of assorted paraphernalia), which I wasn't exactly looking forward to because it would involve me alone schlepping all this stuff into and out of my venue, but it would have involved hundreds of people, so it had to stop. My boss' work thing, all told, probably would have involved closer to the 1000 number. He works on this all year. He had items made for it, some of which got delivered today. In essence, there are keynote speakers for this event who come in from around the country, even the world in past years. Part of it is also ticketed, so once he found out from the venue that they were no longer holding it, he had to start sending emails and making phone calls. It kind of put us all on edge this afternoon, since stuff kept dropping. It made me really tense and I'm pretty exhausted right now, to be honest.
Also, the radio station we listen to typically does a newscast every few hours, but today, it was every hour, which was weird. I heard one at 11 AM, when normally I'd hear one at noon, and wondered if someone had messed up the time change. Nope, heard it at noon, too, and at 1, and 2, and 3. It was the 2 o'clock one that had the anecdote that North Central was suspending in-person classes through the rest of the semester. Oh, wow. I was pretty floored by that. I did reach out to Dr. K but haven't heard anything; I imagine things are pretty chaotic on his end. The thing is, for him, I don't know that he teaches any classes that can be taught remotely. How can you do band remotely? How can you learn conducting remotely? Would those students have to record themselves or Skype or something? Really weird. I'd gotten an email from the school as well, keeping alumni informed, which gave a link to a website where they have various information listed. Students can stay on campus, though if they decide to go home early, there might be a pro-rating of their room and board, but it would take some time to figure out.
You kind of hope it blows over soon. Maybe if we keep to ourselves for the next couple weeks, the sick people will get over their illnesses and the rest of us will stay healthy. I'm wondering about band, too--I hadn't seen it before rehearsal on Monday, but the band president had emailed us to say, if you're sick, stay home. We sit in such close proximity that it's not fair to expose the rest of us to anything, especially given that we do have a decent-sized population over 60. That's the age group mentioned during the press conference the governor and other officials held at 5 PM today, conveniently during the evening news. Considering that's my parents' age group, that does concern me a bit.
Part of me would be okay if everyone got isolated for two weeks. Mini-vacation of sorts. I don't have a job where I can telecommute; I have to be there in person. It's our slow season, so I don't know that my boss would cut hours or anything; we have a small staff already. It's not like we're normally busy this time of year and all of a sudden things will drop off. I do worry about our room renters, though. They're the ones most likely to be affected. Nobody's said anything as of yet, but I'm sure people are thinking about it. Our lead renter already has disinfectant wipes and things and has already been proactive; perhaps the others will follow suit. And my boss was able to go to his local pharmacy and he picked up some disinfectant-type things so that we can try to be proactive as a business, wiping down tables and door handles and whatnot. That's about all we can do at this point. Here's hoping we stay healthy.