Day 37: COVID-19 Quarantine Highlights

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“Please do not come to Holland to see the tulips this year.”

Holland city mayor Nathan Bocks

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI- In the highlights posts, I will include curiosities and unbelievables as I come across them during the COVID-19 quarantine in Michigan.

Holland city mayor Nathan Bocks made a request on Tuesday, April 28. He hopes he will never have to make that request again. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 91st Tulip Time Festival was cancelled for the first time in history.

“Please do not come to Holland to see the tulips this year.”

The only sign of normalcy on this Wednesday morning was the Red Creek trash pick up truck. Thank you dear essential worker.

The annual Lowell Area Crop Hunger Walk on Sunday May 3 will be conducted virtually with the line: Walk virtually. Give online. Change the world. Go to: https://crophungerwalk.org to donate.

On the…

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Day 36: COVID-19 Quarantine Takeaways

Coronavirus takeaways: the good and the bad

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Quarantine comes with the good and the bad

By Emma Palova

The U.S. has surpassed one million cases today, three months after the first case was detected.

The COVID-19 case numbers are mind-boggling. One million cases in the USA have claimed the lives of 55,000 people. In Michigan, there have been 37,778 cases and 3,315 deaths. The peak in Kent County is expected in mid May.

As 10 US states will re-open their economies on May 1, Michigan readies to re-open in waves known as the “MI Safe Start” program.

By now, many are experiencing a “quarantine fatigue,” which drives you outdoors after six months of cold and cloudy weather. We’re finally getting some sun and warmer weather in Michigan. Just about time to pick some morel mushrooms Up North in the Manistee area.

After completing a lot of home-improvement projects, Ludek is ready to go back to work. However…

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Day 35: COVID-19 Waste

Czech beer wasted in the COVID-19 pandemic.

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CZECHSTAROPRAMEN WASTED

Lowell, MI – This morning I found out from the Expatriots.cz newsletter, that Prague’s Staropramen Brewery will dump hundreds of thousands of liters of beer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coming from this country, that holds monopoly on both beer production and consumption, I find this sad and excessive. Staropramen, a subsidiary of Molson Coors, could export the beer.

For more info go to:
— news.expats.cz/czech-food-drink/pragues-staropramen-brewery-will-ecologically-dispose-of-hundreds-of-thousands-of-liters-of-beer/

The media reported earlier in the pandemic, that the US farmers will be dumping milk because the schools and the restaurants didn’t need it due to the shutdown. However, the cows still had to be milked.

Helping out Lowell, Canfield’s matching program until May 1

You can still buy a gift certificate to the local hair/nail salons or restaurants and Canfield Plumbing & Heating will match it up to $50 per household. We went for Sneaker’s.

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Buy a gift certificate of…

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day 34: A different day in the COVID-19 quarantine

Day 34, a Sunday in the COVID-19 quarantine . Listen in to the LowellLife oral history project-an interview with Addie Abel.

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Since we all have to live on in the COVID-19 quarantine, this Sunday’s report will be a little different than most. But first comes my own tally of six televised masses from the empty St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Grand Rapids. The eerie feeling of seeing the empty pews just refuses to go away.

And my cucumber seedlings are growing like crazy. I think I will have the first cucumbers grown in the sunroom rather than in the little veggie patch. We saw sun today after days of clouds. Yay, we’re moving on even in the coronavirus quarantine.

I am delighted to share this story about a one-room schoolhouse teacher, Addie Abel. It comes from our sister blog:

https://fallasburgtoday.org/

Lowell Life Oral History project

One-room schoolhouse in Fallasburg.

Today, the podcast features a great lady- a former one-room schoolhouse teacher at the Fallasburg school, Addie Abel of Lowell.

Listen in this…

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day 31: poetry in the covid- 19 quarantine

April is poetry month. I finished formatting the “Greenwich Meridian Memoir” on Kindle Create. Email Emma for Advanced Reader Copies for reviews.

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Opening Michigan economy in waves

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI – April is poetry month. The featured photo is a poem “Love’s Omnipresence” by Joshua Sylvester printed on an Almond Butter chocolate wrapper.

My hopes are high as we await Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s word on Friday about the possible extension of the stay-at-home order and mainly about the reopening of the Michigan economy.

Coronavirus isolation.

To the dismay of the most vulnerable people in the COVID-19 pandemic, protests have been sweeping the country to reopen the economies.

In the meantime, I moved ahead with the “Greenwich Meridian Memoir” formatting on Kindle Create. The manuscript is now available for reviews. Please email Emma at emmapalova@yahoo.com for Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs).

Visit the page for reviewers:

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/emmapalova.com/325962

Overall, it’s been a dark, cold and cloudy April in Michigan. We had an occassional frost in the morning. I managed only three walks to…

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Day 30: Earth Day in COVID-19 quarantine

Earth Day in the COVID-19 quarantine.

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Where is spring?

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI – As days flow by, nice reminders like the Earth Day tell us that everything has its place in time and space, even in the quarantine. I often miss this very important day because of other stuff on my calendar. This year all events, like planting trees around the community, have been cancelled. The Wege Wittenbach Nature Center cancelled maple syrup community breakfast among other events.

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Barn by the Wege Wittenbach Center in Lowell.

Not only, did we miss Easter in April of 2020, but spring doesn’t want to come either to Michigan. We’ve been waking up to 30-degree temperatures and frost on the cars. Light snow was flying in the morning. Even the furnace sounded tired of the cold. The birds disappeared from the patio.

Silver linings aka good news

My seeds in the mini professional greenhouses have sprouted including…

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DAy 29: Working in the COVID -19 quarantine

Introduction to the “Greenwich Meridian Memoir” written on Good Friday in the COVID-19 quarantine in Michigan. I am currently formatting the new book on the Kindle Create platform.

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“Hope…is the companion of power and the mother of success, for who so hopes, has within him the gift of miracles.”

– Samuel Smiles

Greenwich Meridian Memoir project update

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI -Following the quote above, I am hoping to launch my new book the “Greenwich Meridian Memoir” at the Lakeshore Art Festival in Muskegon on July 3 &4. At this point in time, there are no further details available about reopening the economy in waves in Michigan beyond May 1.

I am moving ahead with the formatting of the “Greenwich Meridian Memoir” on the Kindle Create platform by Amazon. I finished the front and the back matters for the book: these include the acknowledgment, dedication and intro to the book and the biography on the back.

I am including the full introduction to the book here:

Introduction to the “Greenwich Meridian Memoir”

I wrote this introduction to…

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Day 28: Friendships in COVID-19 quarantine

Contagion cannot stifle relationships.

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Contagion cannot stifle relationships

Contagion: coronavirus

By Emma Palova

Among a multitude of other things COVID-19 has impacted how people meet due to social distancing. Since there are no coffee shops or restaurants open, a meeting alternative is nature. Even some parks are closed in Michigan.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, we sat on the shore of Murray Lake with a friend. I will call her Lilian. She is a pretty blonde, who usually dresses up for the smallest of occasions. Lilian arrived all disheveled, wearing her black tights and a skirt with a flashy pink sweater. Her mask has slid down her chin to the neck. She drove 18 miles so we could talk about life’s troubles outside of the contagion realm.

We didn’t hug. She rolled out her sleeping bag on the green grass. I pulled out a folding chair from the trunk, that I didn’t know I…

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Day 26: COVID-19 quarantine insights

The things that I have learned in the COVID-19 quarantine.

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What I have learned in the quarantine

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI- It’s a sunny Saturday in the quarantine so I write this with a light heart filled with hope.

As I journal through the Michigan Coronavirus quarantine, I have gathered some insights over the last four weeks. I’ve also learned new terms and words to enrich my vocabulary.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

PPE can take on many different shapes and forms.

For me PPE constitutes a box of chocolates,candy bars, a head band flipped into a mask and winter gloves. For my husband Ludek, it’s a box of red Cabernet, a respirator and gloves. And for our son Jake, it is a six pack of Bell’s Two-Hearted, Jelinek’s plum brandy, gloves and a mask. Our daughter Doc Em just alternates the real hospital PPE gear with sweatpants in France.

New normal shopping

Number one: shopping in the quarantine is…

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Where to Find Cloth Masks in Lowell, Michigan

From Lowell’s First Look

Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended people wear cloth face masks while out in public. While not …

Where to Find Cloth Masks in Lowell, Michigan