Reston's Plague Year: Week 4 (Updated 4/15)

Tuesday's first day of online learning for Fairfax County students, in two text messages:

Apparently there were also scattered examples of what the district called “disruptive behavior.” Today, middle and elementary distance learning are delayed by two hours to install security updates, or maybe just turn the school system off and on again to see if it solves the problem. (Apparently it didn't work, as online instruction was canceled.) Don’t blame the teachers, blame technology that was never really tested at scale in this way.

Herndon Cares, a collection of Herndon and Reston congregations, is ordering weekly takeout dinners from local restaurants and providing them to more than 400 community members. Donate here.

Uniformed federal agents, at least for now, delivered this to Restonian World Headquarters:

You can read it here if you're incinerating quarantining your mail.

Reston makerspace Nova labs, which has 3-D printed more than 1,000 face shields for healthcare workers, put together a video of its efforts:

You can donate or volunteer here.

Springtime during a plague, before and after:

Spring in Reston is always lovely. While the Yoshino cherries are done blooming, the later Kwanzan are glorious. One of my azaleas is full of buds, and my white dogwood is in bloom. pic.twitter.com/zZOcQtzmXX

— Mary Dominiak (@Bardicvoice) April 9, 2020

Yesterday’s wild winds left us with pink snow in Reston: blossoms ripped off cherry and magnolia trees. I much prefer pink snow to the cold, wet, white stuff! pic.twitter.com/oT6SYbmyFf

— Mary Dominiak (@Bardicvoice) April 14, 2020

If you, like the DRB, are discovering a newfound love of the arts, on the YouTubes you'll find that the Reston Museum is doing a deep dive on one of its Arts:

Rather be outside? You can help the county track a different kind of invasive bug: the Spotted Lanternfly. No social distancing needed!