Thursday Snippets: Quilting, Testing, Teaching

My brain feels a bit scattered today, so let me just collect a series of shorter observations.

--Last week I was isolating because of a positive COVID test.  Yesterday both of us finally tested negative, so I was able to go back to Wednesday quilting at the local Arden church near my Lutheridge house.  I did a bit of fabric sorting, and then I decided that I really wanted to do some hand sewing.  It's not practical to do hand sewing every week; we're trying to complete as many quilts as possible for Lutheran World Relief.

But yesterday, we had three sewing machines in operation, and I didn't feel like setting up another one and then getting the more skilled people to help me when the machine was counter intuitive.  It was so soothing to put together some fabrics with pumpkins and to sit and sew long seams.

--We were able to do COVID tests because on Monday, we made a trip to downtown Asheville, to the Public Health Department where they were still giving out free test kits.  I thought about how people of a different generation might have once, long ago, reported to the health department to get tested for an STD.  I remember news stories in the 1990's that predicted the death of public health departments as STDs became more treatable and traceable, and health department officials didn't need to go into neighborhoods doing contact tracing and tracking down exposures.  Little did we know of the challenges coming down the pick in the field of public health.

--I am glad to read that the federal government will be shipping free COVID 19 test kits again.  If I have to pay $8+ dollars for a kit, I'm not going to test any time I have congestion.

--I am creating a different kind of assignment for my English 102 class, an assignment which has two parts.  The first part is a response to the broad prompt of Seasons and Holidays.  It can be a creative response or an analytical response.  The second part requires analysis of the process of creating part one.  I'm interested to see how it works out.

--I'm also pleased with the research project for my English 101 class.  As I usually do these days, I break it into parts:  a pre-research essay, an annotated bibliography, and a research essay.  I'm also having them do at least one interview and write about it.

Let me stop writing now and get ready for those classes.