Life in the Age of Corona

A Daily Diary

Sunday, May 23rd, 2021

BCC Swim & Dive Team Senior Send-off

Today marked another celebration for some of our Seniors.

BCCSD held a celebration of the students ending their high school career. This was clearly the highlight of the day, albeit very different to previous years celebrations where Coach J. would shout out all the team and individual records in a formal banquet hall.

This celebration was far more informal and held behind the bleachers of the BCC field. As gathering limitations have been lifted, we did not need to socially distance on the bleachers in the sun but could stay in the shaded part. A good move as today was a scorching hot day with temperatures around 34C.

The parent volunteers have done an amazing job to pull this off and I am thankful that after this five-week virtual team season the kids got to meet and have some celebration of their achievements, even if these were not swim records. There were some refreshments provided and Coach J held a teary-eyed farewell speech. Like Coach J. many of the students were rather emotional too.

The format of past years with one teammate speaking about the person send off remained the same. Weirdly, everyone was unmasked, not unpleasant though.

For EM her swim friend N took on the task. She spoke about how they met and how EM helped this new German kid who did not speak English. She spoke about their joined time on the Y team – the Hammerheads - and how some of the coaches were terrible. I did feel a little bad for Coach J. as N. made no mention of him or their time with the BCCSD Team. She did make people laugh though and honored EM in a lovely way. There was a lot of applause and ohing and ahing at the news that EM is going to Madrid.

EM is the only team member leaving the USA for her university career. Her teammates are off to illustrious US colleges like Boston, Duke, Cornell, UCLA, Berkley, while others are staying closer to home and have opted for Montgomery College, Indiana or Tulane. The event ended with a group picture where after we left, packing up the banners, returning the lawn chairs to my friend D., dropping of N. at home and now EM is hanging out with the BF while I have retired to my garden.

The teen mowing my lawn showed up today and finished up the front. He managed to do about half of the back lawn before running over the cord with the lawn mower. Rather annoying as this is a brand-new cord. Not only is it a waste of money, it also seems to be a waste of resources to throw it out. The Listserv came through again, suggesting various repair options, the best being someone volunteering to fix it for us. How kind is that?

Of course, these are the same people who had hosted us to discuss all things Madrid. I have now cancelled my order for a new cord on Amazon. Which incidentally came at half the price of the one I procured at the local hardware store while being twice as long.

With 20k new infections reported over the past twenty-four hours to bring the US total to 33.89 million, numbers continue to look good, almost too good to believe. After Pfizer with Moderna announcing production in South Korea a second manufacturer will now produce COVID shots in Asia, hopefully expanding availability of doses in that region and maybe beyond. 

All in all, life feels normal again!