Lascours Lockdown, Day 660

Monday, January 3rd. Happy Birthday to Colin!

I had a very strange sleep-disturbed night throughout which I kept opening my eyes to see very different times on the clock. Sometimes 06:00, others 00:00 or 01:00 . . . I finally realized that I was alternating between actually waking (the earlier times) and dreaming that I was looking at the clock (the later times).

Shortly after arising, I realized I had probably made the wrong decision about sending the girls back to school today and tomorrow. This is due to the shorter incubation period for Omicron. For those who bring it back with them from this final holiday weekend, they should be symptomatic between now and Wednesday. So waiting until Thursday to send them back was probably not a bad idea. However, I'd already gotten the girls up and had the talk with them about the seriousness of the current situation, and the importance of proper mask etiquette and hand sanitizing throughout the day, and they were very much looking forward to going back. I took them. When we arrived at school, I had a conversation with Neelane's mom, Karine, an elementary school teacher in Beaudinard, which left me feeling even more unsettled about the situation. She thinks the government should have locked the whole country down for three days before reopening schools and feels she's being forced back to work in unsafe conditions with a knife to her throat. However, we also learned from Karine that Maëva's Tuesday teacher will be absent this week (the principal sent out an email yesterday, but I don't typically check email on weekends). This gives me the opportunity to self-correct my miscalculation. Maëva won't go to school tomorrow, so I think we'll keep Laureva home as well.

Back home, as I was doing the exercise bike, Sylvain got a text from Alain Grangier that he has Covid. Alain and Evelyne hadn't yet received their boosters as they were vaccinated a bit later in the summer than we were. Alain was one of the group of people Sylvain spent the day with on Friday. They were outside the whole time and Sylvain hasn't had any symptoms, but we decided to administer one of our home tests before he returned to school this afternoon. It was negative.

At lunchtime, Maëva reported no absent classmates, although one girl started feeling ill and became feverish mid-morning. Laureva reported two absent classmates: the girl I was already aware of and a boy whose parents are friends of the girl's family.

Sylvain decided to set aside his cloth school-issued masks in favor of N95s. He called once he'd arrived at school to ask whether he hadn't taken one of Maëva's because it felt small. We eventually figured out that he had taken an adult-sized one, but that he just wasn't used to the way it fit, yet, as it covers less of the cheeks than other models of masks.

I made progress on thesis examination today. I'm now down to only twelve pages left.

One of Maëva's classmates' moms is an ER doctor in Brignolles. As we were waiting to pick up our kids from school, she talked about how the situation at her hospital is the worst it's been so far during the pandemic. They have been dispatching patients to other hospitals, but everything in the area is starting to fill up now, including Aubagne. She said she doesn't think they've seen the worst of it yet. The cases they're currently treating are ones contracted at Christmas, almost all amongst unvaccinated patients. New Year's cases are still to come.

After school, while Laureva was at piano, Maeva and I made fudge. Maeva had become interested in fudge because it's apparently mentioned in Harry Potter. I told her we used to make it with Grandma Evelyn. We used marshmallow creme and made chocolate fudge with walnuts. The girls had some for dessert and were happy with the results. Perhaps they're not complete failures as Americans after all. Funnily enough, on that subject, Uncle Kenny sent me a random message today asking about the availability of peanut butter in France. Ha ha. When Laureva arrived, I sent the girls downstairs to clean up their rooms. Meanwhile, I made a sweet potato and mushroom lasagna for dinner.

Maeva and I finally finished The Hound of the Baskervilles this evening. It felt like an accomplishment and we're looking forward to starting something new now.