CoViD-19 San Diego County Crosses 47k Cases With 14 New Community Outbreaks| California Mental Health Resources | Your Emotional Hangover Is Real

One of the many "outtake" photos from San Diego Zoo. Call this the Heat Wave Sprawl (Taken 9.28.2020)

This morning I watched yesterday's Dr. Ghaly briefing and Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, the State's first Surgeon General, spoke about mental health during the pandemic and she's so charismatic and soothing that I want her to read me bedtime stories. You can see her portion of yesterday's media briefing here. I was reading about New York state's limited reopening which got me curious to look at their dashboard. For comparison, San Diego county is averaging almost 10k tests per day. Los Angeles is testing just shy of 12.5k tests per day. Yesterday alone, New York City tested more than 37k people!! I know I should be comparing tests/100k people but I just don't feel like digging that hard around their dashboards. 

This week's heat has me pretty much bunkered up at home, especially after being in the sun all day Tuesday for the Battle of the Bands. I watched today's County briefing and there wasn't a whole lot of new information there except...holy shit!.. 14!! new community outbreaks, with five of them in restaurants (not restaurant/bars) which just makes it so clear to me that my family will not be eating at a restaurant in a very, very long time, though we have stepped up our takeout with El Panson and Jochi Resto getting our occasional dollars. Also, Nathan Fletcher clarified that the numbers used to determine our tiers are the "illness onset" days, not the "test reported" data which is what is given in the daily briefings. This is what reader Michael clarified to me, but I kinda think Fletch was specifically answering the email I sent him last week. 

If you're looking for something to watch, I recommend this documentary about Newport Music Hall called "If These Walls Could Talk" (though you should skip the part with the radiant asshole Ted Nugent. I also haven't done any TV recommendations in a hot minute, but I recommend watching "This Is Paris" which is surprisingly good. We're in the middle of watching Utopia, though I'm not sure I'd recommend it because the violence is intense and the subject matter maybe inappropriate while we're enduring a global pandemic. I also started Lodge 49 on Hulu but haven't seen enough to feel any kind of way about it. 

Anyway, today's news and stats as well as some of the information shared yesterday are all after the jump.

San Diego Zoo Offers Free Online Animal Courses & Virtual Spring Break

Mandrills at San Diego Zoo, March 9, 2020

Besides the San Diego Zoo webcams (including the new Butterfly Cam at Butterfly Jungle) and social media pages, which have been actively posting a ton of videos, the San Diego Zoo has really stepped up in providing educational tools for kids and teachers. 

San Diego Zoo Virtual Mission: Spring Break (April 3-19)
Join us today through April 19 for Virtual Mission: Spring Break where kids of all ages will discover online contests, dance parties, games, and much more.

(Posted on April 1) "For the next 8 weeks, as part of our efforts to support the community during the ongoing pandemic, middle & high school teachers & students (over the age of 13) can gain access to 22 free online animal courses.
Click here to register & start learning: https://collabornation.net/register/sdzk12

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CoViD 19: How To Not Let Your Kids' Brains Turn To Goo

Nova is in middle school, so all the students are working from home, getting daily assignments, and all students were provided Chromebooks if they didn't already have them. (A parent survey revealed all students had regular consistent access to wi-fi) So I know it comes with a heavy dose of privilege to assume that everyone has internet access and a device to access it, but you're here, so some assumptions aren't too far off base, I hope. I thought I'd share some resources to keep your kids' minds active as they're going to suffer from seclusion more than the rest of us. I will keep adding to this list, but I promised the family a break so I need to take that now. Please comment if you have additional resources to add here.

The San Diego Humane Society is launching a "Humane at Home" series. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 2pm, the Humane Education Team will bring fun, educational content and activities via Facebook Live on the San Diego Humane Society Facebook page.

PBS Learning Media has media and resources for all grade levels. I haven't delved too deep, but looking forward to deep diving into this one.

Khan Academy This is the math resource used at Nova's school, but is also available for free to any learner, all grade and ability levels, with exercises, video tutorials, and more.

eLibrary Resources San Diego: San Diego Public Library has online resources. Unfortunately, I don't know if during this shutdown if you can get a new card if you didn't already have one, but we are loving having a large list of eBooks and Audiobooks through the CloudLibrary App.

And maybe this is the site that Governor Newsom was citing yesterday:
Resources that Support Distance Learning 

Travel Sites and Attractions That You Can Visit Virtually

These links were provided by one of the English teachers at her school:

Virtual Field Trips - Google Doc - This is absolutely incredible. Go places you've never been, virtually.

Oceans Initiative Virtual Marine Biology Camps

List of Free Educational Site Resources - This is a super exhaustive list of free resources, but it's an ad-supported mommy blog, so be sure to scroll through and only hit the hyperlinked alphabetical ordered list and not an ad that takes you who knows where. Unfortunately, there's no description of the resources, but if you've got time, click through some of them. (Side note, I make pretty much no money from my page because I don't add these obnoxious types of ads within posts, but do accept PayPal and Venmo donations. You can find those on the top of the left column when you use this page from your browser or select "desktop version" from your mobile.)

Free Drawing Classes by Professional Illustrators

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