GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
An interesting day ahead. Unsettled air is headed our way from the west, a storm's moving up the coast, and yesterday's high is exiting to the northeast. The result: Clouds thickening through the day, possible rain in the afternoon, snow tonight, possibly ending as freezing rain while we sleep. Maybe 3-4 inches down by tomorrow morning. Highs in the mid-30s, dropping to low 20s overnight. All you eager people who put your boots away, is this is on you?Here's the Weather Service's map of expected storm totals. The farther east you are, the more you get.And a quick note. First off, to the several hundred of you who've signed up in the last week, welcome! It's very nice to have you here. And thank you to all you readers for those tips and suggestions. They've been helpful, uplifting, diverting, and a bit overwhelming. If it's focused on the Upper Valley, VT, or NH, please keep 'em coming. Items for the "staying sane" section can come from anywhere, though preference goes to things focused on adults — there's a pile of kids' resources already in wide circulation.Confirmed cases tally:
NH is up to 78, including 15 in Grafton and 1 in Sullivan
VT to 52, including 8 in Windsor and 3 in Orange.
Over the weekend, Dartmouth-Hitchcock put out the call for mask-sewers. Upper Valleyites are responding with enthusiasm and skill. There are strict instructions, at the link, designed to ensure that enthusiasm doesn't outrun safety and effectiveness. They're making kits of fabric and elastic available (call 603-650-4217). Questions on sewing to [email protected], and on pickup to [email protected].And it's not just masks. “It’s beyond overwhelming — in a positive sense,” says Dave Coombs, who's DHMC's supply chain manager. Since the hospital put out the call for medical supplies last Thursday, it's been inundated: thousands of surgical masks, plus gloves and cleaning supplies. Coombs tells the Union Leader they haven't even had a chance to sort it all yet. If you're looking to help or donate: 603-650-4217.VTDigger has a list of Vermont businesses and country stores that are offering curbside pickup, delivery, or shipping. They include Baker's Store in Post Mills, W. Fairlee's B&B Cash Market, Farm-Way, the Woodstock Farmer's Market..."Concentrated thought is really taxing." Bob Eddy, a photographer for the Randolph Herald, has Covid-19, along with his wife, Kathy. They're isolated at home. He describes how they got there (he took a quick trip to London) and what it's been like: "Our lot," he writes, "seems to have fallen with the vast majority 'brushed lightly' by this pandemic." The Upper Valley VT/NH Facebook group has added a moderator specifically for coronavirus-related posts. She's Aurora Drew, an epidemiologist who teaches public health at Dartmouth. "Getting people accurate information is an important tool in public health, and this group can be part of that effort," she writes in her introduction.School districts get meals, materials out to students. In general, the breakfasts and lunches are free to anyone under 18, and while some schools have been offering them at pickup locations, most are moving to delivery via school bus this week, Alex Hanson reports in the VN. And they're learning to adjust. After complaints that Woodstock Union Middle School was requiring parents to come into the lobby to get course materials, the school switched to curbside-only.Lyme's Converse Free Library goes online with helpful resources. Librarian Judy Russell has built a page filled with information, including state and federal websites, instructional videos, ... as well as some Lyme-specific information. (Thanks, JO!)The Montshire's starting up online learning today. They'll be doing videos, DIY projects for home, and "community challenges" (yeah, I'm intrigued, too). First up this week: bubbles. Because here's guessing you've got some soap lying around. Link goes to their website, but they're putting it out on all channels: FB, Insta, YouTube.Northern Stage is going online, too. They'll be Zooming "Play Date" every Friday, starting April 3. It's an online play-reading class, with discussion and performances by Northern Stage actors. The first will focus on Chekhov's The Seagull, led by artistic director Carol Dunne. They can handle up to 100 participants for each one, signup at the link.SPONSORED: Everything in Order, born in the Upper Valley, helps every adult create essential legal documents to protect themselves and their loved ones at a very low cost. During these uncertain times we have plenty of resources so you can learn more about what these documents do for you. If you create your documents on Everything in Order, we'd appreciate it if you'd complete a 3-minute Daybreak Reader Survey. And we continue to offer Daybreak readers 20% off. Simply use the code DAYBREAK at checkout. Stay safe, Upper Valley! Looks like it's back to paper or plastic in NH. On Saturday, Gov. Chris Sununu banned reusable shopping bags — yeah, the ones you've been dutifully bringing from home. "With identified community transmission, it is important that shoppers keep their reusable bags at home, given the potential risk to baggers, grocers and customers," Sununu said on Twitter. The order requires grocery stores and other retail outlets to use only new paper or plastic bags. And in Vermont, "close-contact" businesses to close today. Gov. Phil Scott on Saturday ordered hair and nail salons, spas, tattoo parlors, barber shops, and gyms to close by 8 pm this evening.VT Health Connect opens special enrollment period for uninsured. People who lose their jobs and insurance would already be eligible to enroll, but the state health exchange is making it possible for anyone without insurance to sign up between now and April 17. In addition, they're waiving the usual documentation requirement for Medicaid eligibility.How does an anti-vaxx-mandates pol deal with this particular moment? Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Holcombe is taking out after her primary opponent, Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, for his past advocacy of "vaccine choice." "It's scary that anyone in public office or seeking public office would cast doubt about the value of vaccines. It's unbelievable this is even up for debate," she tells Politico. Zuckerman, among a growing number of politicians who oppose mandatory vaccinations, accuses her of "political opportunism."Rutland Herald, Barre-Montpelier Times Argus lay off staff. On Friday, the publisher of the two papers, Steve Pappas, heard from their owner that they would have to take drastic measures to stay in business. They laid off 20 of the papers' 42 employees and cut the print run to three days a week. Ostensibly, the move is just for two weeks. But, Pappas tells Seven Days, "I'm seeing the same things everybody else is seeing — that [the outbreak] could go on for weeks or months."Economic downturn could cut VT state coffers by hundreds of millions of dollars, chief fiscal officer warns. Speaking to the state Senate on Saturday, Stephen Klein, who runs the legislature's Joint Fiscal Office, told them, "You realize if this goes two quarters or three or four, the numbers get staggering." With numbers changing rapidly, Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe said the legislature may need to pass a temporary budget initially. "At the moment, it seems hard to believe that we'll be able to pass a well-informed budget by mid-May or even early June," he said.Same deal in NH. “A crystal ball would be great,” the state's commissioner of revenue administration, Lindsey Stepp, tells NH Business Review. “We know the direction, but not the magnitude or duration.” Receipts from the rooms and meals tax will begin falling soon, as will profits from the state's liquor and wine sales, since restaurants and bars are closed. "We can expect sudden and steep drops in receipts from key sources of revenue," says an analyst at the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute."It’s not about you and the hike. It’s about us belonging to a global community.” That's Sandra Marra, president and CEO of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, explaining to Outside mag why the Conservancy is asking through hikers to cancel their trips this year. The ATC and its counterparts farther wast are convening regularly to talk options and messaging. “We want people to think of the effects on trailside communities,” says Amanda Wheelock of the Continental Divide group. “We rely on rural, small communities... We very much care about the folks who live and work there.”
Yep, they're back. Remember how VT's asking people to bring in their bird feeders by April 1 because bears are re-emerging? Maybe do it sooner, judging from Patricia Campbell's late-night trail-cam photo from Woodstock.Meanwhile, over on Lake Winnipesaukee... Saturday night's sunset was unreal. Fire burns down Hartford garage used for sugaring. A two-alarm fire that drew responses from nine fire departments destroyed the garage at a home on Dothan Road Saturday afternoon. “The cause appears to be related to a maple sugaring operation that was occurring in the garage at the time of the fire and appears to be accidental,” the Hartford FD said in a news release. (VN)Is that the old Lewiston Hill Road? Bob Totz continues his looking-at-signs walk through Norwich from last week. This time he explores the entrance to town, including a signless stretch near the I-91 southbound on-ramp that may have been the way to what used to be Lewiston, down by the river. Looking at a state map from before the interstate was built, he finds this notation: "WILL THE PROJECTED INTERCHANGE STRANGLE THE LIFE-LINE BETWEEN NORWICH AND HANOVER?" "In hindsight, it might have been simpler to name the times of peace." Journalist and historian Mark Bushnell covers the conflicts that seemed almost constant in these parts from the start of King Philip's War in 1675 to the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, with King William's, Queen Anne's, Grey Lock's, and King George's wars in between. The area was a border between the French and British empires and between the Algonquin and Iroquois confederacies, and hosted two large bodies of water — Lake Champlain and the Connecticut — that were fought over and used as routes of attack. What spring break looks like in VT. Now there's a Reddit user with a sense of humor.
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
#UVTogether
Staying Sane
You could check out "The Quarantine Circus," which is a nationwide Facebook page started by Strafford's Noah Chute. It's a place to be creative: As he told the Randolph Herald, he wanted to "make a space where people can connect and celebrate the fact that … your personhood, your creativity, and your gifts are not taken away by the fact that you can’t go to a workplace.”
Scratch, in Lebanon, is offering Online Knitting 101.
Or you could check out Dartmouth prof Matthew Delmont's "Black Quotidian," an archive of "Everyday History in African-American Newspapers." And it's not just text. You can read the news while watching or listening to contemporaneous musical performances, athletic events, or political speeches. Be patient, it's slow to load.
And Audible has made a ton of streaming books available at no charge, mostly aimed at little kids to high-schoolers, but there are definitely some classics you might want to revisit. In all sorts of languages. Hmm. My Antonia? Or Le Portrait de Dorian Gray? (Thanks, LM!)
At 2 pm weekdays, the Philly Zoo is livestreaming its staff offering close-up looks at and talks about the zoo's animals. Seems to be only on FB, but they've got a non-FB livecam of their Humboldt penguin colony.
Helping Out
Not surprisingly, local efforts like Listen and the Haven are facing serious demands on their resources. Listen, in particular, has had to close its income-producing thrift stores while still trying to meet the spiraling needs of our communities. If you've got the wherewithal, they both could use help:Listen here, the Haven here.
Remember that Silo Distillery is making and handing out free hand sanitizer? They need help, too, and have started a GoFundMe page to raise the money needed to keep the effort going.
Good Neighbor Health Clinic has closed its doors but is there on the other end of the phone line (leave a message), and nurse practitioner Nathalie Hebert says, "We will do our best to help anyone who calls, regardless if they are an established patient or have insurance or not." 802-295-1868. If it's Covid-19-related, call the DHMC hotline at 603-650-1818.
The volunteers who usually help agencies that serve seniors are seniors themselves, and they're staying home. So, "This is an opportunity for younger, stronger people to join the volunteer force,” Senior Solutions' Joann Erenhouse tells the VN. In particular, they need people to make deliveries and run errands.
And if you want to support restaurants by doing takeout and don't want to wade through Facebook feeds, the Upper Valley Business Alliance has a list up.
ResourcesNews sources and other ongoing resources have moved here.
Well, now. In times of trouble, where do you turn for sparkling, far-sighted commentary? Why, to Tom Lehrer, of course
.
Who wrote
in
1953.
(Yeah, it's about a different social disease; he considered it too risqué to put on an album.)
(Thanks, AB!)
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