Items
Mediator is exactly
Holidays
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2020-03-20
Rules are meant to be broken
In my covid experience rules suck. At the beginning of quarentine my mom found out that the Virus was airborne. So, she did not let us go outside for a month. I had to wear a mask all Christmas Eve. I also had to socially distance Christmas morning. My family to be safe abbides by a ton of rules during quarentine. -
2021-01-20
Rules in a Pandemic
During the pandemic, there are rules that people are required to follow in California. Some of these rules are incredibly stupid, and some actually make sense. There was a rule for Thanksgiving that you were not allowed to sing. There was also a rule that you could have less people in a party or holiday than a funeral. These rules I find to be incredibly ridiculous, however I do think some rules are noteworthy as being fair to a pandemic, such as social distancing or washing your hands. -
2021-01-20
Covid-19 Procedures
During the Coronavirus pandemic the government has assigned us many rules to follow, and suggestions so we are able to stay healthy. Around march when the pandemic took control of the U.S. We were ordered to stay home and we were advised to no come in contact with friends or other people. For most of march and April everyone stayed at home, and rarely went out because everything was closed including grocery stores. Whenever my mom and dad would go they would wear a face mask and gloves to make sure the didn't catch the virus. Also lines in stores were socially distanced so we'd have to stay six feet apart from all people. At first masks were hard to find, and some people even said that masks don't do anything. Soon enough, everyone was able to get a mask, and the government required you to wear a mask anytime you went somewhere in public. Throughout the summer all these rules remained in place, and since I was starting 8th grade; we had to continue with online school. We did online school until Christmas, and luckily throughout these months more stores had opened up, and even thought superiors still advised we didn't see any friends, I still got to hang out with my best friend quite a bit. It is currently January of 2021, and the covid-19 cases are higher now than the ever were. At this point wearing a mask has almost become second nature, and we recently went back to school earlier this month. We are required to wear a masks, and the desks are socially distances in the classrooms. The procedures can be a bit annoying at times, but we all know that they are to protect us and the rest of the community. -
2021-01-17
Homesick Holidays
This past Thanksgiving, I was unable to return home for the holidays. Despite being a busy university student, usually I take the Flix bus from Tempe, AZ to Tucson, AZ so that I can spend the short break with my family before returning to school for finals. However, despite all the precautions that I and my roommates had taken, my father still recommended that I stay at my apartment, seeing that he is a first responder and goes outside almost every day. That, combined with a recent COVID-19 scare on my end meant that for Thanksgiving, I decided that it was my first holidays spent alone. -
2021-01-17
Think Big, Dream Big
As of January 12, 2021, I began my final semester as an undergraduate at Arizona State University. Four wonderful years consisting of academic rigor, late-nights, and wrestling with the not so smooth transition to online courses. Admittedly, I still have reservations about online instruction; though, I am warming up to the idea and have had success so far in staying engaged and enthusiastic about learning. With that being said, my immediate goal for the year 2021 is to continue my education and pursue a Master's in History here at ASU. At this crucial juncture in my academic career, I have spoken about it over the past year to my close friends, family, and personal mentors, that the idea of not applying would be a step in the wrong direction. I believe I am ready for all the challenges and opportunities that come with an advanced degree. And so, over the coming months, I will continue to establish vital connections, build upon my existing support groups, and plan on starting Fall 2021 at ASU as a graduate student. Thinking of a future after 2021 has also frequently crossed my mind. I have two prospective PhD programs in mind, but I hope to add more to the list. -Solidarity -
2021-01-17
An Unusually Quiet Holiday Season
Our family holidays consist of fun get togethers full of traditions we enjoy. Thanksgiving is loud, full of chaos and laughter. Christmas means the entire family at my house. We make a ton of food, eat, and open presents, have a Secret Santa and white elephant exchanges, which again are fun, loud and chaotic. At the end of the night we take a huge family selfie in front of the tree. This year it was just my husband, daughter and myself, no siblings, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, or great grandchildren. We didn't quite know what to do with ourselves after we opened presents so we watched movies all day then ate leftovers for dinner. My parents spent it alone for the first time since 1964. They were sad but they enjoyed reminiscing about their first Christmas as newlyweds. Although it was still a nice day, it wasn't the same. Once more, it reminded me never to take seeing family for granted. It is a precious gift. I hope and pray that this will be the only year we deviate from our family traditions. -
2020-01-17
Christmas Without the Joy of Shopping
My story deals with how I had to change my gift giving approach for my son in the 2020 holiday season. I chose not to shop in stores for his gifts, to reduce my exposure to the virus and avoid passing on a virus from myself to others. Instead, I gave him gift certificates. This change reduced the holiday joy for me, as I greatly enjoy shopping for just the right gifts for him by directly engaging in the shopping experience in a physical location, and he appreciates the effort and the unique gifts I always found for him. This is a response to the #pandemicprompt on the holidays for Arizona State University, HST 580. -
2021-01-17
Old and New: Holidays in Round Rock Texas
These documents tell the story of my COVID-19 Holidays. It is important to me because it shows what changes I experienced in my holiday plans and offers a unique perspective. Description of images: 4th of July Concert at the Dell Diamond Baseball Park in Round Rock TX. Note the 4-person "Pods" on the grass indicated by the blankets. The blankets were brought by people who had purchased a Pod. Google Santa Tracker Dec. 24th, 2020. -
2021-01-17
Thankgsgiving 2020
Due to COVID-19, some of my holidays looked a little different this year. Thanksgiving this year looked extremely different for my family. Every year, my immediate and extended family go camping together and over the years it has grown to over 50 people. Due to COVID-19 and the fact that my mother and I have diabetes, my immediate family and I decided not to go this year. Instead, we chose to stay home and cook for just the 5 of us that live in my house. We still had the turkey and ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and all the other goodies we usually eat. It was kind of sad that I couldn’t see my family this year and have fun camping, but it still turned out to be just as nice with only those that I live with! -
2021-01-01
New year, new goals
For this new year I have many goals and aspirations. One of them being that COVID goes away (I know that is not how it works). I want to go back to regular life and be able to see everyone’s smiles. I do not want to be shamed for going out to get food instead of staying home 24/7. I do not want to have to take my temperature three times before going to work. Something else I want to change, is that I want to stop living through historical events. I am a history major and I prefer to read history books, not live through them. It seems that in 2020, if it wasn't something that was going wrong, it was another. I will be graduating in May and one of my biggest goals, although I do not have control over it, is to have a ceremony. I am a first generation graduate and I know my family and friends have been waiting for this day. I also want to get into graduate school and continue my education journey and continue to grow. This year I seem to have a lot more goals and resolutions than I have in the years past. -
2020-12-25
A Pandemic Christmas
Christmas was different for me this year. I grew up with a big catholic family so we have many traditions around the holidays. Christmas eve we all dress up, have a nice dinner, and go to mass. Then on christmas day we dress more casual, open gifts, and have a buffet style dinner. With COVID being a factor, I didn't get to see much of my family for the holidays. I spent the actual day with just my siblings and dad. Christmas Eve I didn’t get to see anyone or do anything, I just stayed home and took pictures with my dog in our matching Christmas pajamas (target has everything). I had to trade gifts with all my cousins and other relatives individually in an outdoor setting. Some of the gifts I dropped off and rang the doorbell. Other family members I would meet with in their front yard from a distance. This year was a bit lonely and we all agreed that when COVID is over (hopefully by next year) we will have a huge celebration. -
2021-01-17
New Year Same Year
Starting off this year I was dogsitting for a friend. 2020 was hard on me as it was for everyone else in the world but there was something peaceful about ending a year with comforting a bed hog of a dog that was scared of fireworks. Waking up the next day to feed her and go about my first day of 2021 I felt at peace, almost like perhaps this year would be drastically different for me. I'm about to graduate college, we have a new governmental administration that I hope will be more favorable to me, and COVID vaccines are on their way. Then we had an insurrection and I refused to open canvas for the first week of school because every time I tried I was gripped with terror at the thought that this would be my last semester in college meaning that I had to be a real adult soon. There is no functional difference that the exchange from 2020 to 2021 brought to my physical or emotional state. Like everyone else, I'm excited for COVID to be over but I know that the changes I need have to come from myself and won't be ushered in by a new year new me mentality. Throughout 2020 I spent time trying to reach out for help with my mental health and other things I had been struggling with. I think the thing I'm most excited about in 2021 is continuing the work I've started in a world that isn't so hard to be in. I want 2021 to be a year that I am able to spend working on myself and building into a fully functioning member of society. -
2021-01-13
The Covid-19 Holiday Season
The holiday season during the Covid-19 pandemic brought many changes to the family routine. In total, my wife and I usually have four different houses to go to because we have both have divorced parents. This does, of course, make the season incredibly hectic. This year, however, every house seemed much more amenable to change. About half of our typical gatherings were cancelled to protect the elderly in the family, as well as those with pre-existing conditions. Of the family events that did occur, we had only ten people or less at each event (in a typical year, each house usually brings at least twenty guests and some bring several more). Even at the gatherings that did occur, things were still atypical, with most wearing masks and everyone following social distancing. In addition, many in my family have had COVID and were quarantined during the holidays. Nonetheless, we spent a lot of time on the phone and wishing each other a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas. Another thing I enjoy doing with my wife each year is attending a Nine Lessons and Carols service at various churches in the area. Because of the pandemic, however, we chose to forgo this Christmas tradition and watch a service online. While the pandemic has brought many changes and challenges to our lives, we are fortunate to be able to connect with our family from a distance. Technology has certainly mitigated many issues that the pandemic has brought, and without that, social distancing and cancelling holiday plans would have been much more difficult for people to concede doing. However, hopefully, the cancelled family plans this year will provide us with the opportunity to celebrate with our families next year. The pandemic has hopefully reminded everyone that while the holiday season can be stressful (like visiting four different houses on one day), it truly is a wonderful time of year. -
2020-12-30
Black man wrongfully detained by maskless police officer tests positive for COVID-19, fiancee says
Excerpt from article: A Black man who was detained by police in Virginia Beach, Virginia after being suspected for a crime he did not commit, has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to his fiancée, Shantel Covil. -
2021-01-13
Covid Holidays
My family normally meets at my parent's house for Christmas every year with my Dad's infamous filet minion dinner. However, I have not been there in-person for the past decade or so because I always work on Christmas. Unfortunately (or I suppose fortunately), paramedics are needed to staff ambulances on holidays. Though I did not work on Christmas this year, I was still unable to go to the family party due to Covid. The biggest difference this year for me was that for the first time, I was not the only family member who participated in the holiday party remotely. This is not to say that I was happy that my family could not get together like normal, but there was something oddly comforting to not being the only person on zoom/whats app/etc. during the holidays. Everyone prepared their own dinners at home, we jumped on zoom and did a family toast and showed each other our respective meals. We all logged off to eat and then jumped back on to continue to celebrate the holiday and do the annual secret Santa exchange. Overall, it was a more normal holiday for me than for the rest of my family, but it was overall a great Christmas. -
2021-01-15
Changes To My Annual Holidays
My annual holidays consist of Eid al-Fitr, Christmas, and New Years. This is what happened in 2020. I think it's important to be able to document experiences from different walks of life. I don't know how many people would celebrate the first two in the same family, but they've been a big part of my life since I was born. -
2020-12-25
Celebrating Christmas Remotely
I've written a small little recounting of how me and my extended family celebrated Christmas over the app 'house party' on our phones - in comparison with our previous Christmas celebrations it was incredibly small, short lived and felt hollow. In a sense, this feeling was reflected throughout my own household during the whole Christmas break. -
2020-11-26
Thanksgiving Dressing Connection
My family Thanksgiving's have featured a wide variety of fare throughout the years. The one constant, the one dish that has always made an appearance is dressing. The recipe is a family one that originated with my great-grandmother, a wonderful woman who lived to the ripe old age of 102. Known across the extended family as the Queen of the Kitchen, her legacy lives on through the recipes she left behind. This Thanksgiving was more difficult than any I can remember. Out of the twenty-four Thanksgiving's I have been alive to see, I have never spent one without my sister. Now, she lives a state away and health concerns surrounding my 93-year old grandmother kept my sister away. COVID-19 drastically changed the mood of the holiday, but one dish still had to be cooked. You guessed it, dressing. Ingredients: 10 baked biscuits 2-3 cups of baked yellow cornbread 1 loaf of toasted bread 1 1/2 cup chopped onion 2 cup chopped celery 1 cup celery tops 1 tablespoon sage 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning 2 cups water 1 cup chicken boullion 2 eggs Salt and pepper to taste Original Directions: Break bread into small pieces. Set aside. Put all remaining ingredients except eggs in a saucepan. Boil till celery and onions are tender. Pour over bread mixture and toss. (Add more liquid if it needs to have more water. Cool. Add eggs. Mix lightly. Put in greased pan - Bake 300 degrees for 30 minutes. -
2021-01-11
My Pandemic Holidays
Holidays were really hard for a lot of people. While I don't feel like mine were effected too much, I think my story is still worth sharing! -
2021-01-12
Christmas Break.
To be honest, this Christmas break i didn't do much. I normally hang out with friends and go on bike rides and just have fun. This time though, i didn't do that. I really just played video games with friends and spent time with family. Although I went to get my haircut and I did see David Price. (A former Dodgers Pitcher). So ya, thats my break, not too interesting. -
2021-01-12
COVID 19 Christmas
My Christmas looked very different this year. I still got to see some of my family but most of them did not feel comfortable traveling. We had a zoom call for some of our family on the east coast and in England and they got to watch us open presents on Christmas morning. -
2021-01-12
Christmas in Cochrane, 2020
This file contains both a photo and a text story to accompany it, it's mainly just my thoughts surrounding the holidays in the pandemic, firstly with what I did, what my previous Christmases were like, and my family's reasoning with staying home and abiding with quarantine restrictions in opposition to the many other examples of people breaking these restrictions for the sake of family. I think it's important mainly, because the pandmic has redefined, or put a new emphasis on familial love - do we love our family by choosing to stay home during a deadly pandemic? Or do we love them by breaking restrictions to visit them during said pandemic. Submitted for HST 580's first assignment at Arizona State University, Pandemic Prompt: Holiday's. -
2020-12-14
Santa to the rescue
This holiday, we were on an emergency stay at home order. Solano County advised that all gatherings should cease. Meaning that our holiday was unfortunately canceled. My family has been working hard to adhere to the rules and orders, but we are all feeling a little exhausted from it all. I especially wanted to visit my parents in Oregon. Originally, we were thinking of getting tested for Covid right before we headed up to Oregon. But my mom being a medical worker did not feel that she could guarantee our safety. So for a little change in our routines, we made hot cocoa at home and filled up our new mugs. We got warm and cozy (All in our jammies and hats) and piled into the car with blankets. Then we drove to a local neighborhood that is well known for its holiday spirit. The locals call these streets Lollypop Lane, and it adjoins with a road we call Candy Cane Lane. We just cruised in a big loop listening to Christmas music for hours. Whatever, the kids were happy and we felt like we were doing something out of the ordinary for the first time in a long time. At one house, a man dressed as Santa yelled to the children in their cars and told them that he knew they had been good. It was sweet. All and all we went looking for Christmas lights every few days. -
2021-01-01
Japanese New Years Open House Covid-19 Style
This picture shows how my family celebrated our annual Japanese New Years Open House during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The annual event in my household is one of an open house where there is lots of food, friends, conversations, and wishing of a Happy New Year and blessings to them and/or their family. This year the pandemic affected our annual event by not allowing anyone to come except one person besides our household. This event means a lot to us as we are a multi-racial family with various ethnicities and heritages. We make dishes that bring new and exciting food choices to people who normally would not be exposed to this cuisine. -
2020-12-25
My Covid Christmas
My Christmas was basically normal. The only different thing this year was that all the dogs came there was 8 dogs there! Also some of my older family members did not come. But overall is was surprisingly good. -
2020-01-11
What Christmas was like with Covid-19
My Christmas was pretty normal, to be honest. The main difference was I was not able the see my grandparents. That was very sad because I spend Christmas with them almost every year. I was able to talk to my whole family everywhere over zoom witch is something we have never done. That was fun to talk to some of my family that I don't talk to very often. But other than that my Christmas was pretty normal. -
2021-01-10
Wait, it's 2021? New Years Eve in a Pandemic
For the past four or five years, New Year's Eve was always something I greatly looked forward to. Usually my night was spent with friends, playing games or enjoying a drink while waiting for the all-important countdown to the new year. One year, my roommate's mom came to visit and we celebrated by bombarding each other with silly string as the clock struck midnight. The next year, my friends and I decided to participate in the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight, one at each stroke of the clock, but forgot until about 5 strokes in and risked choking as we attempted to catch up with the clock. In 2019, which seems like so much longer than a year ago, I celebrated with a friend who worked for a dog-sitting company; as midnight came and the fireworks began, we toasted with champagne while comforting the nervous pups. Despite what had happened in the previous year, or whatever challenges I already foresaw for the upcoming year, New Year's Eve was a chance to end the year with some fun, and start the year with good company. Obviously, this year was different. Leading up to December 31st, I felt a sense of loss. In 2020 I had moved to a new state, and the friends I usually celebrated with were over two thousand miles away. Even if I was in the same state as them, it would have been irresponsible to celebrate in the way we previously have. What was usually a night I looked forward to every winter was instead serving as a reminder of the often overwhelming sense of loneliness this pandemic can bring. I was heading into the end of this year melancholy and disappointed. But then one sentence, which I saw on instagram, changed my outlook. While I did not screenshot it, it said something along the lines of this: Celebrate New Year's Eve by going to bed early, so you can start 2021 rested, refreshed, and ready to take on the year. So that's what I did. After finishing work around 7:00 PM, I went home, took a shower, read a little, and called it a night. I recall briefly waking up to the sound of fireworks, but for the most part I slept well and began 2021 rested, rather than exhausted from staying up all night. While I was still a little sad to have spent the night alone, without the usual fun activities, I think it was a good way for me to start out the year. I can use that night as a reminder that even though 2021 will still be unusual and, at times, a bit lonely, I can take this alone time to focus on myself, and what allows me to feel rested and refreshed. It's not the most revolutionary resolution, but as far as New Year's intentions go, I think it's a pretty vital one. -
2020-12-25
My Covid Christmas
During Christmas break, cases in corona have been higher than they have ever been in the United States. I was only allowed to hang out with my cousins, (who live coincidently down the street) mostly the entire break. During Christmas my mom has to get creative and plan new things for Christmas Eve. She came up with a little holiday party and had so many fun games! We had secret santa and then went to bed! Even though no other holidays, this one felt real. The happiness and joy inside of me was really there to spread along to my family and I had a very little joyful covid Christmas with my family. -
2021-01-10
A COVID Virus Christmas
Christmas of 2020 is approaching fast. Faster than usually, as this year has seemingly sped by quicker than any year before. Perhaps the first sign of the coming Christmas season is when I open the fridge to find a bottle of Califia brand eggnog. Just as I think that Christmas will be perfectly normal this year, I hear some disappointing news. My cousin Michael is coming home from the Marines... With COVID. This means that I will not be going to my cousins house in Burbank like always, but that I will be spending Christmas at my own house. I don't like the idea of Christmas away from my cousins at all. I have been going to Burbank for Christmas for as long as I can remember. That being said, I can't do anything about my cousin getting COVID. On Christmas Eve, my mom grilled some steaks for dinner that she had gotten from Gelsons market, and we watched Four Christmases and Die Hard. In the morning, I woke up without the usual anticipation and excitement that comes with a typical Christmas morning. I walked down the stairs to discover the presents my parents had ordered online. I opened them, thanked my parents for the wonderful gifts, and started playing the new game I had got: Call of Duty Cold War. The rest of the day seemed like any other, and so did the rest of the week, and rest of the month, and the rest of the year at that. Now it's 2021. Everyone is filled with hope that this year will be far greater than the last, but I seriously doubt it. Especially with the news we all got on Tuesday, January 5th. That said, all we can do is stay positive and keep our heads up. As Winston Churchill once said, "If you're going through hell, keep going." -
2020-12-24
McDonald’s At Home
Home cooked meals have always been the norm for us, but in our pre-COVID lives of working full time, gymnastics competitions, church commitments, piano lessons, Kumon, trips to Disneyland and on and on, eating out definitely factored into to our lives at least once a week. In March, that came to a grinding halt. With COVID cases in our area high, and being fortunate to work from home, we quit restaurant food cold turkey when quarantine began in hopes that the numbers would decrease. Ten months later, with daily case rates of COVID in our county now reaching into the 1000s, restaurant food is a distant memory. It was a bit shocking to realize we’ve only had restaurant food five times since March, and each time it was dropped off on our porch for a special occasion. With the kids begging for McDonald’s, we almost caved in December when the McRib commercials started. Instead of giving in, we spent December tackling the challenge of making McDonald’s at home. Big Macs, Egg McMuffins, McDonald’s pies, and yes, even the McRib made it to our homemade menu. It’s been a really fun challenge to try and get the taste just right. Also, a very odd and strange Christmas Eve to attend Christmas Eve service online and then to eat homemade Big Macs. But then, there was something perfect about it, too. What can I say? It’s a good time for a great taste in quarantine. -
2020-10-31
Halloween At Home
Halloween is usually a month long celebration at our house. We plan our costumes months in advance. We go to Disneyland at least a dozen times to enjoy the special Halloween treats, decorations, and to wear the insane amount of Disney Halloween shirts we own. On Halloween night, we serve at our church running game booths for the community and come home just in time to trick or treat (and usually get A LOT of candy because we’re some of the last trick or treaters). This year, of course, every single thing listed above was cancelled. With so many disappointments this year, we committed to making Halloween a celebration from morning until night. Making our own backyard carnival, the kids bobbed for apples, carved pumpkins and played Halloween soccer (okay, it was just soccer but we were in costumes!) My daughter was over the moon to have us all dress as Hogwarts students, except for her little brother who dressed as her owl. Lunch included ghost shaped chips, jack-o-lantern quesadillas, grape “eye balls,” and guacamole in a jack-o-lantern pepper. To make dinner extra special, we brought out the fondue set we registered for when we got married over 15 years ago and never opened. The kids loved a dinner of dipping into cheese and chocolate. The one thing my son repeated all of October was he wanted to “trick or treat to all the doors in the house.” Undaunted, we turned off most of the lights, put a bowl of candy inside every door in the house, and put either an adult or a dressed up stuffed animal (there’s only three adults here and way more doors) at each door. The kids were genuinely excited to trick or treat and actually knocked at every single door, and gleefully filled their bags with candy. It’s easy to focus on all that has been lost this year, but this simple, stress free, at home Halloween may have ended up their favorite one ever. -
2019-12-09
Why Skiing Won't Work in a Pandemic
WHY SKIING WON"T WORK Dear Director Silver Thread Public Health (Mineral County, Colorado), I've had a few days to mull over the response made to my comments to the commissioners earlier in the-week regarding the ranking of Mineral County on the Colorado COVID 19 Dial and dashboard. Though I am not a resident of Mineral County I do spend the better part of my day in the county some 150 days a year, forgive me for commenting again, but I feel duty bound that someone goes on the record in hopes that a different viewpoint might have influence, even if in the back of the mind of the county's decision making as the pandemic progresses. I see some flaws in the reasoning given for gerrymandering Dial levels, rather than using them as they are described: Nowhere on the state’s Dial web pages is the decision process STH is using described or encouraged as its proper use. To say it is for guidelines mostly and not necessarily classification misrepresents the public’s perception and use of the dial. Changing classification to a county’s preferred level interferes with individual and the public’s crucial health options and choices. There is an assumption in the explanation that because Mineral County is a small town that somehow the numbers of incidents per 100,000 would be treated differently. Is the known math of the virus and its tendency for spread somehow fortuitously different here than the rest of the planet? I think not. 1.7 deaths per 100 cases works for COVID whether there are 700 people present or 7,000 people present. Rates per 100, 000 are employed exactly to gauge the seriousness of outbreaks regardless of the size of communities. Dangerous spread in sparsely populated states made up of mostly small towns disapproves Creede’s desire for s special dispensation from the disease. The explanation of ad hoc policies and improvised rankings and guidelines fall on the premise of a Public Health expert’s interpretation of “social responsibility,” an expert completely without the means to accurately monitor or enforce “social responsibility.” Social Responsibility, by the way, is also the governor’s preferred preventative and even his office has acknowledged that it has not worked. As illogical as it is that the smallness Mineral County somehow protects it from the realities of a deadly virus that obeys its own rules (and we know its rules well) no matter where it is transmitting, the wishful thinking that a small town knows best how to make its own rules defies even the remnants of reason when the policies disregard that the county includes a resort where thousands of people have and are gathering. Even if ranking and guidelines (at the time of my comment or now) were helpful per the improvised policies of STH relative to Creede, if that logic holds, the ranking and policies for small Creede certainly could not logically also be applied to Wolf Creek Ski Area, which was and is gets visited by thousands of people per day packed into parking lots in an area about the same area as Creede and at much higher density of people per square foot. Many of the ski areas visitors have come from far flung states with high infection rates, and most are from cities where small town “social responsibility” is often something very different than enjoyed in Creede. (I’ve seen plates from over 20 different states and from literally every corner of the county.) Small town or other norms of “social responsibility” also does not describe the atmosphere or the intent of a ski resort. It’s a vacationland where, in part, people travel a long way to take a break from their normal “social responsibility.” Indeed there is a strong element of maverick independence associated with the sports of snowboarding and skiing--including the apres socializing associated; It’s a place where, expectedly, we are allowed to break the rules a little, or a lot. Even within the community, if the Dial is not accurate, it can be intentionally or unintentionally misused by leadership in organizations and businesses that have to make decisions about gathering. Not everyone understands the elaborate process described in the thinking of STH; even a reader of it might not be helped by its crafting. Some individuals and leaders predisposed to attitudes resistant to the realities of COVID 19 will inevitably use lower ranking to justify their own personal and organizational loopholes. Employers of that bent may use the misinformed ranking or juggled guidelines as leverage over employees who would otherwise be best protected by accurate “Level” and guidelines that adhere to the Dial’s published parameters. Fiddling with the COVID Dial on a county level also ignores what public health experts are saying about the current dangers of the disease and models (which have, so far turned out to be pretty darn true) forecasting a debacle this winter, for everyone, including small towns. Fatalists and skeptics of the virus are using today to deny what we know is going to happen in a near tomorrow. Those tomorrows could be better or worse depending on what is done now. Fiddling for little windows of “freedom” will enable the most likely to spread among us to spread, and delays or manipulations of accuracy will cost lives, lives that in a small town count very, very much to all of us. The danger of taking liberties with vital Public Health information by debating the application and inventively blending the facets of a Dial Level leans towards a see-saw of levels, downgrading too soon too much and upgrading too late too little. I sincerely hope that Mineral County will make more effort to educate the public and leadership how to understand and use the dial instead of explaining (or not publicly explaining) the reasons for toying with and complicating it. It might also cut down on your mail, and relieve Mineral County’s health decision makers from the burden of taking on extra potentially egregious extra-personal responsibilities, pressures and culpability for public health outcomes. Used properly, the Dial is a tool that uniformly makes those responsibilities a matter of conferred, collaborative public policy and record rather than an ever shifting discussion inviting undue blame (or undue congratulation) for decisions that might be identified as personal. My prayers are with you as you make these excruciating decisions, and I pledge my personal social responsibility to your efforts. No need to reply. I know you are busy. Sincerely, Wayne Sheldrake South Fork, CO PS I don’t put this all on STH or Mineral. I know adjoining counties are also picking and choosing from the Dial. All the better reason to keep it descriptive rather than interpretive. W. K. Sheldrake (Wayne) is the author of Instant Karma: The Heart and Soul of a Ski Bum, #1 on Outside Magazine Online’s list of “6 Adventure Books We’d Read Again and Again,” and Foreword Magazine’s ‘Gold Medal’ Adventure Book of the Year (2007). He is recording his pandemic experience in a memoir THE19: Confessions of a Mad (American) COVIDodger. He lives in Southern Colorado with his “high risk” wife where there is plenty of wide open space. They do not currently have a dog. -
2020
story from elda chen
My christmas this year is same as those before, probably because I’m not a native american, my family don’t care much about christmas, but covid still made this year a lot harder for me personally, because of covid I Couldn’t get back to china during break, my dad and my grandmother were in china, I used to go back every year, but not this year. My daily life is also very inconvenient, because my family lives on the hill and we rarely go out. Covid restricts many opportunities for me to get out and have fun. -
2021-01-08
Covid over winter break
Over Winter Break my family and I drove in our Black SUV Ford Explorer Sedan 1200 miles or 18 hours to Cheyenne, Wyoming to visit my Grandparents. Along the way we stopped at the local Starbucks' to pick up a coffee for my coffee obsessed mother and we were on our way. When driving through Los Angeles, California you should always expect to be caught in traffic which was a minor setback, but we still made it through. The rest of California is very ugly being that its just Desert for 200 miles. During this time my sister spends her time spreading her nasty feet across the seat onto my body and refuses to move them for at least an hour. When I attempt to do this I am immediately yelled at and pushed off within 3 minutes. My dog which is completely lazy lays his little butt down between my sister and I and sleeps 3 quarters of the trip. My dad drives the whole time because my mom throughs a fit and refuses to drive even a single mile. And I sit down under my sister's legs under her super hot grey blanket in a cramped SUV in the desert and despite all that the car ride was pretty nice. When we finely arrived at our hotel in Grand Junction, Colorado we went out to Applebee's which I got to say is pretty good. I got the rib plate and a kiwi lemonade which I got to say is really good. At around 7:00 we arrived back at our hotel where we all collapsed and went to bed. At 5:00 we got back up, got dressed, brushed our teeth, and walked out of our hotel in to 20 degrees ferenheit. I made a mistake and decided to do it in sweat pants and a T-shirt. The rest of the drive was much shorter and a lot more scenic with the beautiful Colorado mountains and snow on the ground. we stopped at a local Maverick Gas Station to fill up and we all got out and used the facilities, even the dog. and the rest of the trip was nice. When we finally arrived we hugged our Grandparents and went inside. They have a enormous beefy Black Labrador named Hatti that for some reason liked to lick my dogs ears. Around 5:00 my aunt, uncle, and cousins came over and once again we hugged and visited for the rest of the night. over the next few days we went over to our cousins house to hang out and have a ping pong tournament, I lost badly. Over that time we went to my cousin's friend house to look through a telescope and witness something that only happens once every 400 years. Jupiter and Saturn join together in the sky and and create a bright light known as the Christmas Star. After that we went back to our Grandparents house to spend the night. the next day we went ice scating at the local arena and I swear I spent more time hitting and bruising my body parts on the ice then on my scates. The next day we spent most of the time playing pingpong with our cousin's. The next day we went to an escape room which we successfully completed and the next day it was Christmas Eve. That day was absolutely amazing. It started with launching a potato with a potato cannon across the ranch my grandparents own. After that we went to the shop and we did our own scavenger hunt which is our tradition. And then we went back to our Grandparents house to have our Christmas dinner with our great Grandma who is 92 and had our annual lemon cake. We went to bed and woke up and it was christmas. I got a lot of good stuff. like clothes a new football and a new build your own remote control rock crawler jeep. and then it was time to leave and go to our other Grandparents in Colorado Springs, Colorado. There we had a second Christmas Where I got New Airpods and a lego set. we hung around the house for mostof the days but we went to our other aunt and uncle's house and visited them for 2 days. And then it was time to leave to go back home the way we came marking the end of our trip. -
2020-12-25
A Covid Christmas
How COVID impacted a family's traditional Christmas celebration -
2021-01-07
Covid-19
My first memory of Covid-19 was in late December of 2019. I was sitting on my couch watching TV when I heard my dad in the other room talking to my mom about how the new "coronavirus" desiese was getting worse in China. I was shocked at first about what he was talking about, so I went into the next room to ask him what was going on. He explained to me how there was an epidemic going on in China, and how some people have died. It all seemed very new and since it was all the way in China I wasn't very concerned with it other than thinking that it must be scary for residents of China. Fast forward a few weeks when we get back to school, lots of kids in the hallways were making jokes about the disease that was spreading, and were saying things like, "Don't forget to use hand sanitizer cuz of corona." Up until mid march the jokes kept on running, and the epidemic in China became more and more of a big deal. Until the night before march 14, 2020 everything was still a joke, and the rumor of us doing online school from home was still a running joke. But on the night of march 13 we all got an email telling us that we'd be doing virtual school from home for the next two weeks. The following Monday we started online school, and we all thought it would just be for two weeks. I was up in my room all day, and we only got short breaks in between classes. The first week everyone seemed to enjoy it was we had to use zoom calls for our class periods. The second week of school everyone including myself started not liking the idea of virtual school as much. Even though we got to sleep in later, people were sick of sitting at a desk almost all day long. Soon enough they extended our time we would be doing school from home because of a pandemic for longer. The coronavirus had spread to the U.S. and most people rarely left the house except to go to the grocery store because everything was closed. Whenever my mom or dad would go to the store they would wear a mask and gloves to make sure they didn't catch any germs. Lots of other people did the same. By this time almost the entire country was in lockdown. It had grown into a full-blown pandemic; other countries like Italy we also bombarded with the panic of Covid-19. Everything was a complete disaster just by mid-april. I had no idea when we would be going back to school, or when things would return to normal. I still don't as a matter of fact. by this time I thought we'd go back in may, but we didn't. In the first couple weeks of may, just a few days before my 13th birthday, everyone at this point hated online school, it was dreaded by children across the country. This gradually got worse and worse, teenagers' mental heath was tanking by a landslide. Quarantine was now taking over my life completely. Most days I would sit in my room the entire day even on weekends since we couldn't go anywhere. Throughout June was probably the worst moth for my metal heath, and I think many others would agree. Saying we were bored would be an understatement; I wasn't depressed much like a quite a few of my other friends ,as far as I'm concerned, but it felt like all of our happiness and livelihood had been taken from us since what we started lockdown. Soon after, in July things started to open up again, the cases for covid-19 were getting lower(which was good), and people basically assumed quarantine was over. The nest month since things were opening up previously we all thought we would go back to school, but a few days before school was supposed to start we were informed that we wouldn't be going back, and we had to continue with online school. I was extremely disappointed, and I thought hopefully we'd go back by at least October. The following months through Christmas break we stayed in online school, and almost nothing happened. I spent my days the exact same as the day before I would sit in my room do school and then look on my phone or listen to music(mostly One Direction, The Beatles, and 80's music). My life became dark, boring, and quiet. By this time everyone was so fed up with quarantine, since we had been in lockdown for the past 9 months. Even Christmas felt different this year; usually I'm super excited and this year I almost didn't even care about the holiday's and I can't explain why. I'm currently writing this on January 7, 2021 at 9:05 pm. We've luckily gone back to school yesterday for the first time in ten months. There are plenty of safety precautions to make sure none of us get sick like: wearing a mask, social distancing( staying 6 feet away from people), and there are even certain ways to we have to walk around hallways and the campus to keep us in order. I can already feel a change in myself since we went back yesterday. It already feels like things are getting better now that we don't have to do virtual school with zoom calls for classes. I'm also really glad I get to see my friends, and hopefully make some new ones. If there's anything I've learned from being a part of the current pandemic it's that you can't give up or give in to other things going on with the world or even within your own life. No matter how tuff things you have to remember who you are and what you want to be. If anyone in the distant future is reading this I want them to know that, and how lucky they are to be apart of something as wonderful as life can be. I found myself more often than never longing for the past hoping for answers, only to find out the past is inside all of us, and even when the hardships of reality kick in you have to remember how amazing it is to get to experience something as rare and beautiful as life is. So don't take things for granted and appreciate every moment because you'll never know when something as mind-boggling as a world-wide pandemic will happen to you. Long story short never give up on your hopes and fantasies; it might just be the thing you'll need the most. -
2021-01-01
Covid Christmas
This Christmas was very different for me due to the pandemic, it started out normal, I was with my friends and family exchanging gifts and having a good time, but the next day, I had learned that people at my house were exposed to someone with Covid-19, this led to us quarantining and being scared that we caught it, but everyone was negative for the virus in the end thankfully. It doesn't stop there though, my trip to Mammoth Mountain got cancelled so instead I took my Can-Am out to the desert, the reason this is so strange is because it has been a yearly tradition of my family's to go to Mammoth for Christmas for over 10 years, and this was shocking to me. Now that it's the new year, things are already going downhill, I've had to postpone my birthday because there are no places to go, this is a summary of all the things different about my Christmas, I'm just thankful my families okay. -
2021-01-07
My Christmas traditions before and during Covid
Before Covid, this is how I spent my holiday. On Christmas Eve, my cousins, my aunts, and my uncles come to my house to celebrate. In the late morning, we have brunch and in the evening, we would play board games and card games while waiting for our dinner to cook. When the food is ready, we eat and do a White Elephant gift exchange with everyone. On Christmas morning, we open our presents and we eat breakfast. After we go to my best friend's house and exchange presents and have lunch, once we leave my friend’s house, we go home and mess around with our gifts until dinner, and then we would eat and be done. Since Covid, we didn’t have anyone come over on Christmas Eve and did not do a white elephant gift exchange. We tried to keep some of the tradition by playing cards and other games with my mom and sister. Instead of doing a gift exchange on Christmas with my best friend, we dropped off their Christmas gifts a couple of days early. The one thing that stayed the same was that I spent the holidays with my mom, sister, and grandpa. -
2020-01-07
consider how Christmas was different for you this year because of covid-19
This year with Covid-19 going on my Christmas was a little different. Every year on Christmas day we go to my grandparent's house and all of my cousins that live in town go to my grandparent's house but my other cousins that live in Virginia cannot come down to spend Christmas with us this year because of Covid-19. We all go over and exchange gifts and eat dinner as a family. I feel if covid-19 wasn't around I fell like all holidays would be extra good just because we get to see our close family members. -
0007-01-21
A Christmas durning COVID 19
Unlike other Christmases, this year was different. I'm Avi Sobel, and I am an 8th-grade student sharing my Christmas expire during the COVID 19 pandemic. What greatly made this different was the amount of family and friends. For example, it was only the people I lived with. But, even though it was different it didn't lack meaning. We still celebrated our father Jesus birth and gave thanks for one another. We also did a tradition of giving presents. by, Avi sobel -
2020-12-25
Dewey Christmas 2020
For christmas my sisters and I normally sleep downstairs by the tree then we wake up. After a while we wake up our parents and they get their coffee. We open our stockings first then we open our presents. At around lunch time we get dressed in nice clothes and go to my aunt's and uncle's house. This year was way different. On christmas my sisters and I woke up by the tree and then we woke up my parents after. We opened our stocking mine had pistachios, trail mix, chocolate, earbuds, earrings, an amazon gift card, and cashews. Then we all opened our cards from my grandma. Then we opened our presents. I am not a huge present person but I am so grateful for what I got. I got a comfy Nutella sweatshirt and 2 super cool cookbooks. Then we watched A Christmas Story and Elf. The whole day we read our books that we got and we watched Hallmark movies. For dinner we had tamales and apple cider. -
2021-01-07T14:30
Covid Christmas
This year was way different than normal. I normally love Christmas/winter and I tried to enjoy it but it was very difficult. After Christmas day my Aunt, Uncle and grandparents (on my mom's side) would come stay at our house or we would go to my grandparents. This year we did not see then. On Christmas Eve my Aunt, Uncle and two younger cousins (on my dads side) would come over all evening/night. They decided not to come over this year so we briefly exchanged gifts and talked. 8:00am on Christmas morning my mom woke me up. My parents and grandparents (on my dads side live with us) where already up. My older brother woke up shortly after. We opened our stockings at the fire place then went to the living room with the Christmas tree. We opened the other present there and talked for a few after. We all went to our rooms to use the new stuff we got. I was kind of sad that Christmas was over because it barley felt like Christmas. Later that night we had Christmas dinner. As much as I tried to enjoy Christmas and the long break from school the vibe wasn't the same and was slighting disappointing. -
2020-12-25
Christmas
This picture of a mask is one I wore throughout the holiday season. I wore it seeing family, going in public, and going to establishments. While I have been wearing them throughout the pandemic I wore them a lot more during the holiday season. This made my christmas different because I had to distance and wear a mask the entire time around the people I’ve known the longest for the first time ever. -
2021-01-07
How Christmas was Different
Every year at Christmas time we have family over to celebrate. We would have skied at Mammoth Mountain California this year. However, due to Covid-19 restrictions my family was neither able to ski at Mammoth nor have family over. This made the holidays very different. We did not travel over the Christmas break, rather we spent the holidays, hiking and going to the beach. On Christmas Day my family hiked the Sandstone Peak trail. The peak is the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains this made for a great view, especially of the ocean. Another hike that my family went on was a hike up a mountain called Mt. Boney. We went to various beaches during the break, where I surfed a little. Overall, it was a different Christmas due to Covid-19 and we could not do some of the things we usually do in order to protect ourselves and our family members. -
2021-01-07
My Christmas During Covid
This year's Christmas was a bit different, but it was pretty much the same as normal. We never travel over Christmas break so staying home wasn't too unusual. My uncle and grandfather ended up coming over for dinner because we see them pretty often, but we still stayed socially distanced. We were extremely blessed this Christmas with an amazing meal and lots of presents to open, but it was really nice to just sit down and catch up with everyone. I realized that even though we were all in the same place at the same time we hardly knew what was going on in each other's lives, in detail I mean. It was also probably the longest I had gone without looking at my phone or computer in the last year or so. Despite not being able to see all of my friends like I normally would, I think this has been one of the best Christmas' ever. -
2020-12-25
Celebrating Christmas during the Pandemic
This Christmas we had to change some of our traditions. Although it could not all be the same we ended up still having a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas eve we wanted to do something special but everything is closed so we just hang out with each other and then at night we went to a church service. Christmas morning, we really didn't have much planned for Christmas so we decided to head to Mammoth. In the morning we opened up all of our presents and packed our bags and got in the car to go off to Mammoth. Once we got to Mammoth we had a lot of fun skiing. The second night we were there our family friends came up to so we got to have dinner with them and play games. A few days later we went home and that's were our break ended. In all we had a wonderful break but I was also very excited to come back to school. -
2020-12-22
Christmas with Covid
The coronavirus or covid-19 is what I had to live with and continue to live with. During the Christmas season covid hit hard and it prevented me from seeing family and friends. It was quite devastating that I was unable to visit my grandmother because it may be one of my last Christmas's with her. By the time covid is solved we will have arteficial hearts. -
2021-01-07
Covid-19 Christmas
On March 13, 2020, America went into lockdown because of the virus of Covid-19. People lost jobs, and people in they're family, things became a lot different. Eight months later, it's Christmas time yet again. This year, it was a lot different for a lot of families, including mine. Lots of people weren't in the Christmas spirit since it was such a rough year, but even more people decided to embrace being at home and go all out with decorations, and anything 'Christmas' they could get their hands on. If I'm being honest here, kids all over the world look forward to gifts under the tree on Christmas morning. This year, since people where unemployed, and struggled to get things for their children. A lot of kids didn't get many or even anything this year. My family was very fortunate this year to even be able to celebrate Christmas since they both lost they're jobs back in March. Every Christmas, we do the same thing, stay at home so this year wasn't much different from the rest. This year really impacted a lot of people, but we all got through! -
2020-12-24
My Christmas
This Christmas, everything was normal we all meet up and had our normal feast. I'm happy to say that there's nothing wrong with having a small Christmas party, but we just have a huge family. I also made our made Christmas card. -
2021-01-07
Covid Christmas
This Christmas was kinda different than any other christmas for me. Covid did not really effect my family but what happened was that my cousins got covid on Christmas Eve Eve. So that effected a lot of our Christmas plans. We were supposed to go to my Nana and Papas but we could not because of our cousins and we did not want to risk giving covid to my papa. Then Christmas morning was normal because my Nana came over and we opened up gifts and i got a new gaming microphone. They my sister had her friend over at night and we played What Do you Meme and watched Christmas Vacation. That is what my Christmas looked like.