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Date is exactly
2021-10-14
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2021-10-14
Alone
When travel restrictions were lifted, did you take a trip? If so, where did you go and why? What are your memories of this trip? Were there any continuing COVID-19 restrictions in place? Once the Pandemic restrictions were eased, not necessarily lifted, my family and I traveled to northern Arizona, southern Nevada, southern California, and Korea. During the Pandemic, life continued on as normal for me, not so much for my spouse. I was a social worker who continued to do home visits. My spouse was an elementary educator who was able to work from home. Life during the early-, and mid-stages of the Pandemic was busy, and it felt like we were going full-speed ahead - faster than before the Pandemic. Traveling has always been my family's go-to experience; however, the Pandemic halted travel as the areas we usually go to, road trips to California, or flying to Korea, were off-limits. Once restrictions were eased, we immediately traveled to those areas to get away. Restrictions were still present, mask mandates required us to wear masks in California, and Korea. One of the memorable moments was wearing a mask for a lift, a 14-hour flight, to Korea with a one-year-old who constantly wanted to pull the mask off. Lastly, the most memorable moment throughout the whole trip to California and then off to Korea was the feeling that we were always alone, during the day or night, everything felt like a ghost town. -
2021-10-14
Jobs/Businesses Closed during Covid-19 Pandemic
I want to begin that looking through google website I found some interesting images that went well with what I believe are very important reminders of how and when the pandemic just hit San Antonio. This is important to me because it is a reminder of when businesses/schools were closing and people were losing their jobs and being furloughed had no clue where this pandemic was taking us and so many people lost their homes, no way to put food on tables, or pay bills, etc. Not knowing if we would ever come back to the job we once had and relied on for many years a change that no one knew how it would impact our lives dramatically. For me personally at my employment when I received an email that they will soon let people go from their jobs or furloughed I was worried out of my mind, and a constant thought, of “What will I do if I lose my job.” Something like this can never be forgotten and is a reminder of how our lives can change due to a pandemic that no one ever thought would ever happen and not even prepared for. -
2021-10-14
Biden Says Port of Los Angeles Will Operate 24/7 to Ease Logjam That’s Fueling Inflation
The global supply chain crisis has led to some unprecedented steps to regain efficiency. How much more recourse do the public and private sectors have? -
2021-10-14
When Silence took over Las Vegas
I live in a city bursting with lights, music, wonder, excitement, tourists, and opportunity – Las Vegas, known throughout the world for its casinos and world-class entertainment. Two of its most popular attractions are the Las Vegas Strip and the Fremont Street Experience. The Las Vegas Strip, an almost 5-mile section of Las Vegas Boulevard, is filled with an array of sparkling and neon lights showcasing casinos, hotels with thousands of rooms, restaurants, and entertainment venues -- always bustling with people. My absolute favorite sight and sound along this part of the drive is the spectacular Bellagio Fountains. As you continue on a couple of miles past The Strat, you are introduced to the sights, sounds, and smells of the Fremont Street Experience in historic downtown Las Vegas. Whether I am driving by or enjoying a night out, I love to hear the sounds of the Fremont Street Experience, where crowds of locals and tourists enjoy music along with its famous unique experiences. The Slotzilla Zipline zips laughing and screaming people above the noisy crowds looking up to see them glide under the world's largest digital display while presenting light and sound shows. It is a carnival-like atmosphere within a 6-block street party. Free bands play simultaneously on several stages along the street, while people sing and dance in the streets and have a good time. All ages find it perfect for date nights, parties, or hanging out. Then along came the dark shadow of COVID, shutting down Las Vegas, and the music stopped. The Fremont Street Experience became quiet. It was no longer a place where you could hear different kinds of music coming from multiple areas. No bands were playing your favorite dance songs or rock and roll. Fremont just became a regular street with noiseless empty hotels and restaurants. The stages were silent and bare, and the crowds' shouting, laughter, and singing disappeared. Fremont was quiet for the first time in its history. The excitement and joy were gone. It was no longer a fun place to go, and the silence felt eerie and hauntingly incongruent. Fremont, like much of Las Vegas, felt, looked, and sounded like a ghost town. Now, as we open back up to the public and the crowds return, I once again hear the laughter, the bustle of people, and live music when I drive past or show up. Fremont is back, and now there is only a memory of when the sound of silence was all that filled the air. -
2021-10-14
Smell of Covid in Carolina
This story of the pandemic deals with the sense of smell and how it relates to my experiences while working as a security guard at a local college. -
2021-10-14
Smell of Covid in South Carolina
Until recently I worked for Campus Security at a small college in the upstate of South Carolina. Before Covid, my job mainly consisted of patrolling the campus on foot and by vehicle. I would let students into their dorm rooms when they were locked out, perform traffic duty, write parking tickets, and occasionally perform searches if we thought a student had a weapon or some other kind of contraband. When the virus began to make itself known on campus, our job descriptions changed. Oddly enough, we were expected to deliver meals, three times a day to students who either had the virus or were in quarantine due to exposure. At first, we only had a small handful of students to feed but by the Fall of 2020, we were delivering meals to nearly one hundred students. Keep in mind, there were at the most, only four officers delivering these meals at any given time and the student to be fed were spread all over campus. The one thing that really stands out in my mind during this time is the smell. I have never been a huge fan of breakfast but the smell of scrambled eggs that never seemed to go away, almost ruined the first meal of the day for me. No matter how quickly you delivered the meals, by the time you finished, the patrol vehicle smelled like scrambled eggs. If it was a warm day, which it usually was in South Carolina, the smell was particularly heavy. House Keeping had to sanitize the dorms daily. One particular dorm building had a smell of its own due to the fact that a large trash bag burst in the elevator and spilled its contents all over the ground floor lobby. Many of the quarantined students lived in this dorm and I can still remember the rancid smell when walking through the front door. No matter how much they cleaned, house keeping never could quite get the smell out. While working at the college, I was like most, worried that I would contract the virus. To help prevent this, I sanitized my hands on a regular basis. The smell of alcohol wipes and Lysol will always remind me of this time. I also wore a mask wherever I went and would sometimes spray different scents on the mask to make it smell nice. Smell, above all other senses, will remind me of Covid and my time as a Campus Safety Officer. -
2021-10-14
Suffering of My Relatives From COVID-19
Here is a story of how the pandemic affected some relatives of mine who currently live in India. Specifically, they live in Bangalore, in South India. Between January and February of this year, they caught the COVID-19 disease. Perhaps they got it while they were in the central city shopping area doing routine shopping. In any case, it afflicted my relatives strongly. Two of them died, having succumbed to COVID-19. A significant way in which the disease tormented them was in their loss of sense of taste. Once COVID-19 affected them, beyond experiencing much fatigue, chills, and body aches, they could not taste anything. My affected aunt had apparently claimed, "Everything tastes like mud." The loss of taste, fatigue, chills, fever, and breathing difficulty are standard symptoms for the COVID-19 disease, which may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. Also, the pandemic affects different individuals in different ways. The disease progresses in its affecting people, with mild symptoms eventually developing to severe illness. Unfortunately, until the COVID-19 symptoms passed, quarantine measures were taken against my relatives; they were confined within their apartments. As I am close to these people not physically but in a familial sense - as I am currently living in the US – their suffering had a great emotional impact on me; and their welfare means much to me. l can also empathize with Indian COVID-19 suffering, especially the notion of suffering due to lack of taste. Indian culture greatly values cuisine, and taste is an associated factor of cuisine; therefore, loss of taste is quite significant.