March was an odd month -- we began almost normally, with everything open and everyone going to work and school the same as always. By March 13, with coronavirus spreading in Houston, schools shut down, our spring break trip was cancelled and our plans shifted to sheltering in place.
March 2020 will be a month we won't forget, for so many reasons. For us, it started with having to put Weezie down on March 7. I woke up early that morning and found her paralyzed, in a puddle of her own urine and making a sound I had never heard from her before. Henry and I took her to the emergency vet and it was clear that her systems were shutting down. It was terrible, because Weezie has been a part of our lives for so long. She was 18 1/2; I adopted her back in January 2002. We still miss her every day.
Losing Weezie was heartbreaking for us, and especially Henry who really loves his pets and especially his cats. He begged to keep the day normal, so we went to the farmers market, took Will to a birthday party, and then headed to a craft fair at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.
Hooking a rug
Lunch outside
This came in the mail from Uncle Tom -- how fun!
We went to school and work as usual on Thursday, March 12. I had classes in the library all day and during the last period, one of the English teachers came to me because she had noticed a new app on her computer -- Zoom. It was on my laptop as well. Then the announcement came for music students to pick up their instruments. At that point, there was no official word that school would be cancelled, but we all knew it was coming. That morning, we had already cancelled our spring break trip to Utah. And so began spring break at home.
The weather was lovely, so we got outside a lot. The Arboretum is always our favorite spot and has been a lifesaver for us throughout this pandemic. For me, being outside in a beautiful, quiet place calms me like nothing else can.
Ruby discovered turtles for the first time. She was obsessed!
Gene has been hankering to get up to Huntsville State Park, so we headed up there on the first Sunday of spring break. It's a lovely, wooded park and it was not crowded.
Henry and I started taking lots of bike rides and found some new little free libraries. We always leave books!
We also stopped having our housekeepers come, which meant everyone gets to pitch in to clean.
Henry and I spent a monring at Hermann Park.
Found another little free library!
Snowy egret
The Japanese Garden is calm and soothing.
We also spent time working on our new sticker mosaic,
playing lots of games,
made ourselves really comfortable,
worked a big puzzle,
and worked on soduku puzzles.
We even had Gramma and Grampa come over for a socially-distant visit.
Henry's birthday was March 21. We celebrated the best way we could, considering it was a rainy day.
Born at 9:06 am!
Henry opened his gifts,
ate delivery Thai for dinner,
and had Crave cupcakes for dessert.
The day after Henry's birthday was gray and overcast, but we wanted to get outside, so we headed west to the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge. It was on my list of places to visit but we had never been before. We were literally the only people there and it was delightful.
We saw all kinds of critters, like this pipevine swallowtail caterpillar
and a crawfish who reared up at us!
We ate most of our lunch, until I looked at my weather app, which said "rain starting in 1 minute" literally as the rain started coming down. We threw everything in the cooler and dashed to the car.
We drove the auto loop and saw a couple of cows. This one started mooing and moving toward us.
Ruby's first cow -- she was entranced.
That night, we realized that my office in the kitchen was not going to work long-term as my work office, so we dug out the old library table that had been stored under the guest room bed and set it up on the blank wall in our bedroom. Ready for the first of many weeks in the virtual library!
The kids had an extended spring break, but were troopers as Gene and I headed "back" to work on Monday. I had a couple of furry coworkers. Ruby doesn't normally come upstairs, but we had to replace an a/c unit and have some other unexpected work done, so she was stuck with me. Freyja spent time lounging on the balcony.
The boys kept themselves busy with books, games, puzzles and more. Henry and I continued our bike rides and took daily peeks at our milkweed. We watched monarchs come and lay eggs and then watched the caterpillars munch and munch and munch and turn into chrysalises so the whole process could start anew.
By the last weekend in March, everyone was sheltering in place, but parks were mostly open, though with limited services. Websites weren't always updated so it was hard to know where to go, but we decided to go to Cullinan Park in Sugarland. Ruby is always up for an adventure.
We really like Cullinan Park, but we arrived late in the morning and it was more crowded than we liked, with bikers using the trails (which is terrifying for walkers!). And the bathrooms were closed. We enjoyed our adventure anyway -- and it was quite an adventure since we ended up accidentally hiking five miles.
And that afternoon coffee is always a perk (pun intended!).
March 2020 was definitely tough as we all adjusted to the new realities of living through a pandemic.
