Big Storms and Little Bugs

I don't often mention larger events here because this is about our family, not a commentary of current events. But now is a time for an exception.

First of all, we were not directly affected by the tornadoes that tore through Middle Tennessee last week. We actually slept through the whole thing here. Well, Jenna and I both woke up hearing light hail and strong winds, but since there were no weather alerts on our phones we didn't think it was anything beyond a normal storm. We had no idea about the devastation that was happening some 30 miles to our south.

On the other hand, Ben and all the other residents at Tennessee Tech were awakened around 2:00 am and moved to the lowest floors of their dorms for about an hour and allowed to return to bed when the storm passed. Little did they know that some residential areas just a few miles north of campus were being decimated by an EF-4 twister that took most of the lives lost here in Tennessee that night.

I won't go into other details here since they have been so well covered by the news. Davidson Academy itself was not affected, but there were several schools in Nashville that were and will not be able to reopen any time soon. Some of the public schools are doubling up, allowing the hosting school to have classes one half of the day and the students from the damaged school to hold their classes the other half. Donelson Christian Academy, a cross town sports rival of ours, isn't so lucky and I'm not sure what they plan to do. Of course, concerns about the Coronavirus may make all that a moot point anyway. We did have a handful of DA families affected by the storm, but for the most part our students, like us, live outside of that storm's path.

We do have some good natured banter with our cousins, the Cotters, about whether it's better to live in Florida or Tennessee. They've said before that they don't know how we can live with the threat of tornadoes. I have always maintained, and still do, that they have hurricane season for half the year and that I'd much rather take my chances with a scalpel over a sledge hammer any day. Besides, we have winter, spring, summer and fall. They only have a long tourist season and a short off season.

Of course, the COVID-19 virus is currently a major concern around the country. While I certainly want us to be careful and do all we can to keep this from spreading in a big way, I am also saddened by the hysteria that is coming with it. People are doing the craziest things in order to be safe. Nate and I were in Walmart today and the toilet paper, of all things, is completely sold out. Now Facebook Marketplace seems to have become a black market for this household necessity. Really people!

To get back to how this is affecting us, all universities seem to be switching to online classes only and even closing their dorms. Jenna's nursing classes are no different with no decision yet as to how they will do labs that require hands on participation. Ben's spring break is next week and has been extended to two weeks, and his mission trip was canceled. His classes will resume in online mode when their break is over, so he has at least three weeks here at home. Davidson Academy's spring break is next week as well. We are closed tomorrow to wipe down the school and have been told to prepare to do our classes online after the break is over. Many of our public school systems are announcing that they will be closed until April 10 or so. DA is just not playing that card right now. With four of us working from home for the immediate future I hope our internet service can handle it.

So, interesting times to be sure. Hopefully this is no more than the major news incident of 2020, though at this point in time with churches switching to streaming services only, travel bans, event cancellations, and even Disney and Universal announcing that their theme parks will be closed through the end of the month one can't help but wonder now if this outbreak will forever alter our way of life. Lots of unknowns to be sure. Some of our seniors left school today wondering if this was their last day of high school.

Wishing you all health,

Joe