Hello all my forum mates. I am creating this thread just to get news from you all my friends. The nasty virus has no nationality and spreads everywhere. Our love of football is common across borders and will be stronger: we will soon go back to stadiums and practice fields with our friends and kids. In the meantime, stay at home, respect and foster social distanciation, follow your health authorities' recommendations (e.g. CDC in US) and don't believe the irresponsables ones who thought it was just a flu and decided to do nothing. My family and I are so far ok. We in Switzerland follow a confinement that is respected in the country. The health system is solid, not yet overwhelmed (except in Ticino canton), but anyway too many deaths. We might be reaching the end of the peak in few days: to be confirmed. The authorities are ramping up a large testing campaign, whose results will help to design the "come back" phase. My two sons in Dayton OH and Melbourne Fl are ok so far. They strictly follow confinement and distanciation and hygiene rules : they even started early March this before local authorities requested it. Indeed, I explained them that what happened in China, Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland will also happen in the US and that the health system will have great difficulties to cope. They were ready to minimize their infection risk. I hope to read good news from you very soon. I miss you. #stayathome #thinktoourelderones
We are well. Our son is home and currently in the transfer portal--so he's actively talking with other schools and trying to navigate the transfer without the benefit of meeting the coaches or players or even seeing the campuses in person. He is finding ways to train and has only had the police called on him once... Strange times. At this point I'm just hoping that there will be a fall season.
I've been working from home since 3/17. It's been complicated with a loud, rebellious 3 year old and a 10 month old who's learned to walk over the last couple weeks. Productivity is fleeting, but we're all still healthy so that's what is important. Soccer-wise, my 19Us' spring season was cancelled after the first week of training. Lots of work on recruiting and team building over the winter has come to nothing, and that's been a huge disappointment personally. I'm also a director for the club so we're working on issuing refunds due to the cancellations... another headache from the season that never happened.
Hope all is well @OverseasView! On my end, still in the office everyday...nothing like being an "essential" employee with not much to do. My wife and three kids are at the house, which I'm sure is somewhat of a nightmare through the day. Just being patient. Enjoying some time with family. Picked up running again, and it's not been too bad. I guess it's time to work on getting healthier again after taking a few years off.
Being retired, deciding whether to spend all day on the couch or part of it in bed isn't much different than before. My wife still goes to her friend's restaurant most days to help out since they have laid off all the waiters and most of the kitchen staff - just takeout and delivery orders (she threw a delivery guy out yesterday because he refused to wear a mask). My oldest got laid off when his employer (car dealer) closed down the sales end, but his girlfriend is an essential worker (prosthetics fitting). My other 2 kids are working from home and still employed.
Typically, I work from home 3 or 4 day per week. Going in just to facilitate or support meetings. This was the same for my entire team. So this hasn't been much of a culture shock for my team or me. We have been 100% working from home since end of February. My wife is working from home for the past 3 weeks. This has been more of a culture shock for her. My daughter in Chicago has been working from home for a large theater company and looks to be employed through this month. But this won't last forever - maybe another month or so..... Everyone is healthy and staying at home as much as possible.
Oversea View - thanks for asking and checking in. Here in Maryland, we've been on "stay at home" orders since March 30, and I've been teleworking from home since a couple of weeks before that. So essentially have been in my house since the middle of March, going on about six weeks now. The good news is my wife and I and our three adult kids are all healthy and still working, one for a law firm, one for the non-profit DC Scores, and one for the US Navy. Re my daughter in the Navy, she has been on her ship, the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman, since November -- so about six months -- and now the Navy is keeping the Truman at sea for at least a while longer, as thankfully there is not a single case of the virus on this ship -- unlike some US Navy ships, as has been in the news. Here is a recent news article about the status of my daughter's ship: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/harry-s-truman-deployment-coronavirus My son who works for DC Scores (DC United's main charity affiliation, and a non-profit that provides after free school soccer, poetry, and community service programs to over 3,000 children "poet-athletes" in Wash DC; see https://www.dcscores.org/ ) is mainly working on plans to keep this program, started in 1994, going for the future. This son also did a lot of soccer refereeing for DC's various adult leagues, which provided him with some decent extra income. Of course, all of those leagues are closed down for now, and some of the small business orgs that run these leagues are really suffering given the lack of funds coming in. At home I'm getting kind of bored - surprise! Celtic FC has been posting a lot of their old games for free to watch on social media, so that has been some fun. For other diversions, here was a humdrum stay @ home hobby I came up with when organizing one of our closets ... how many seasons of soccer ball caps have I collected? Answer ... 14; see photo below, which represents the following line-up: - 98, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 11, 13, & 14 NCAA College Cup caps - St. John College High School where I played soccer - DeMatha Catholic High School where my two sons played soccer - Penn State where son played GK, and where I tried out as a GK after playing two years as a Penn State branch campus, and I got cut by Walter Bahr (a great guy, despite his decision) from the PSU team that went to the NCAA final four that year (1979) - DC Scores where son works now.
To all the contributors and college soccer supporters on this forum, thanks for all your insights and inspiration. All the best, God bless, take care, and hope to see you around a soccer pitch soon.
Hello All. To give some news of hope, here in Switzerland we are slowly loosening the confinement. The pandemic graphs look good. People have been great respecting the distanciation rules and other constraints. It worked ! The 11th May, restaurants can re-open (with specific rules). I look forward to degusting a tartare avec frites on a terrasse of the Leman Lake's shores. However we will still have to be vigilant and disciplined to avoid the return of a violent second wave. Voilà, I wanted to share this quick message to show that the light at the end of tunnel will be there soon for all of us. Be safe, respect the distanciation rules and we will all soon go to the stadiums to watch our football