Day 60: covid-19 quarantine in michigan

Happy Memorial Day weekend

Memorial Day 2019 at the Oakwood Cemetery in Lowell. This year’s Memorial Day parade and activities have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new normal ahead of Memorial Day weekend

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI – While northern Michigan is opening today for business in the COVID-19 era, the rest of Michigan is still on stay-at-home order through May 28 with many unknowns looming as we head into the Memorial Day weekend.

Hit by a dual disaster of dam failures in Midland, the state is suffering from a prolonged status-quo of the state of emergency, but eager to reopen.

Although the manufacturing sector is slowly starting up and the gardening places are open, we’re still not going to get a haircut, a steak or a tooth pulled.

Social distancing

This week I got a full-flavored taste of the new normal. A special meeting of the Fallasburg Historical Society on Monday, held at the site of the Tower Farm, was attended with board members wearing masks. The members were properly spaced six feet apart in a circle on the lawn by the Tower Farm.

Read the story “Tower Farm rennovations to complete Fallasburg village street look.”

Tower Farm renovations

Mask Wars

The issue of wearing masks has been at the forefront of fierce fights on Facebook, in stores, at home and in different organizations. The complaints against masks range from difficulty in breathing to freedom of choice. Somehow masks got political.

Luckily, living in the country, we have enough space to face-off the six foot social distancing challenge.

On day 58, I marked the passage of time by planting my window boxes with geraniums thinking about the health care heroes and praying for them.

Silver linings

In the afternoon we test rode our new EVs (electrical vehicles) that is bikes boosted with a battery. On the news, I found out that due to COVID-19, bicycles have sold out all over the country. People prefer bikes to public transportation for fear of getting infected.

There have been silver linings all along in the quarantine: increased outdoor activity, creativity and innovation to offset the cancelled parades and Memorial Day activities.

Although I’ve delayed the publishing of the “Greenwich Meridian Memoir,” I am moving ahead with the book launch planning. I will have my book launch at LowellArts, as COVID-19 restrictions ease.