Adaptations

When I was writing a college recommendation letter earlier this fall, I found myself commenting on how one of my students embodied the characteristics of “grit” and “resilience” that are among the trendy buzzwords in education circles these days. Reflecting on that comment now, I realize that most of us are in the position of having to persevere under difficult circumstances and in many cases to re-invent how we live our daily lives. So this post, after a long hiatus, is about some of the ways that I’ve adapted to the current reality imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

At work, for example, in the early days of the lockdown and again this fall, I went into the lab and recorded myself (with the help of a colleague) carrying out an experiment and providing some data for the students to analyze by posting the video on YouTube. We are sort of back on campus this fall, but I’m facing a host of limitations: fewer and longer class meetings (to minimize daily contacts); fewer total hours of class time and less cumulative time for homework (consequences of the revised daily schedule); and preparing lessons to teach roughly half the students live in the classroom and the remainder remotely on Zoom (also to reduce the number of potential contacts).  As a result, I am adapting by consciously de-emphasizing content (which I don’t have as much time for anyway) and instead focusing on basic skills like following directions, navigating a classroom management system, and helping my students develop confidence in their ability to learn and to solve problems on their own. It feels like our education system is due for a reckoning at some point in the future as this entire cohort has a lot of catching up to do, but at least I’m doing what I can to keep these young people engaged and moving forward.

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Our family adapted to travel restrictions that prevented us from going to our usual vacation spot in Maine by renting a condo near Conway, New Hampshire, and spending our time hiking in the White Mountains. The hikes were more strenuous (even without attempting Mount Washington) and less scenic since you have to climb a long way to get above the tree line, but we were able to enjoy some nice sunsets from our condo. We also struck a nice socially distanced balance between take-out from a couple of familiar restaurants and our usual cooking in and bonding over board games.

Speaking of board games, a highlight of our social lives for the last several months has been a weekly Zoom meeting with new friends (who started months ago as friends-of-friends) to play an online version of the game Codenames. (If you’re not familiar, you can find the in-person version here. If you are familiar then you can try the online version by having some friends join a Zoom call on one device and then all logging onto this site with a second device.) In what has to be a peak example of socially distanced socializing, one night I found myself sipping a cocktail-in-a-can while playing a board game with my friends on Zoom.

This fall, we’ve been able to enjoy a few outdoor meals, either with friends over a backyard firepit or at a few of the neighborhood restaurants that have set up propane heaters to extend the outdoor dining season. In the process, we’ve made some wine discoveries (including a pinot grigio that picks up an orange color from being left on the grape skins rosé style) and scored a couple of exotic beers (the winner here is the rarely seen Focal Banger, from the folks at Alchemy Brewing best known for Heady Topper). We also adapted our traditional Christmas Eve lunch in Newport by ordering takeout and then going to Brenton Point State Park, where one of the boys alertly spotted the picnic tables neatly stacked out of the way so we could sit comfortably and enjoy the chilly sunshine.

Singing has sadly been pretty much out of the picture for the last several months, but even there we have worked out some creative solutions. At church, the choir director has been honing his video production skills and worked with a team of medical consultants to create a miniature “recording studio” where singers can record tracks one at a time to be combined into a Brady Bunch choir. And our caroling group rigged up personal microphones and speakers in combination with elaborate PPE and social distancing to pull off about a half dozen outside performances. I think we look like some sort of Victorian bee-keepers, but everyone we sang for appreciated the effort and the little speakers might allow us to do a wider range of outdoor performances in the future.

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And we did manage to maintain some contacts with the outside world, most notably my brother-in-law from Maryland who sent one batch of Crooked Crab beers when his partner stopped by on her way through town and another batch with my son who stopped to visit there after leaving his fall term co-op.

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So even without leaving home, I’ve been able to have some fun adventures this fall and tried to practice the resilience that I’m preaching to my young charges. Right now, we’re enjoying having our twins home as they rest up ahead of another semester of mostly remote classes and we all wait impatiently for our vaccinations. Here’s hoping that the year ahead lets us all keep the adaptations that have worked for us but also lets us return to familiar rituals and activities that we’ve had to avoid. Cheers!