I hope you and your family are doing well.

Did you take my advice and put some structure in your day? If not, it's probably about now that you're starting to feel really yucky. But don't worry - it's never too late! Some consistent sleep hours, better eating and a little morning walk or exercise will do wonders. Make sure to get some fresh air.

Have you been watching the news? Feeling on overload? It's ok to disconnect a bit from that. Social responsibility does mean you should be up on current events, but in a situation like this, it can stress you out. I pretty rarely look at the news. The better-connected people around me often update me anyway.

If you feel stress taking over, remember what I said back on Day 1 about the little scientist with the tiny clipboard.

If your family is having trouble making ends meet since the shutdown, don't forget that the Upper Merion Community Cupboard exists to help with food. UMACC.ORG

In times like these, there are people out there who will take advantage of the panic and anxiety felt by others. It's a tiny minority of people - in my experience, most people are nice. But it only takes a few to really muck things up, so be careful.

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an article this week about it.

You'll hear lots of things that seem too good to be true: virus protection and cures. I think most of you know to disregard them. But some of the scammers are more clever than others and might be close to convincing you. And, the longer this goes, the more tempting it can be to send your money to some unscrupulous person. You need a trusted source.

If you are hearing things and need some good fact checking, I highly recommend Snopes. You have to have a trusted source, and they are mine when it comes to rumors. I do apologize, though - they spend a lot of time fact-checking politicians, so be aware of that if you start to poke around on their website. I have no desire to influence your politics in any way, and have tried really hard to avoid sharing my own political views this year.

CM with the Family

Why not have your family try some of the fun human center of mass experiments that we did in class? In case you've forgotten them, I've listed them below. There's plenty more that you can find my searching on the internet.

	#1 Sit in a chair with good posture. Try to get up without leaning forward. Explanation: When sitting your center of mass is over the chair. To stand up, it needs to be over your feet. One way is to lean forward (which is what you habitually do). Another is to bring your feet back, on either side of the chair. You may want to have the person fold their hands in their lap to avoid them trying to grab onto something.
	#2 Stand with toes to the wall. Try to stand on your toes for three seconds. Explanation: Your center of mass is typically over your heels. To stand on your toes, you need to shift your center of mass forward - the wall prevents you from doing that. A small baseboard at the bottom of the wall isn't usually enough to mess this experiment up, but a baseboard heater might.
	#3 Stand two footlengths from the wall. Gently lean over and put your head against the wall. Now try to get up with using your hands. Most can do this but some can't. Bigger feet and a high center of mass are a disadvantage. To make it more difficult, you can lean over, put your head against the wall, pick up a chair and then try to get up. CAUTION: competitive people will try to push off of the wall with their head with the usual result that their head comes right back down and hits the wall. I usually put my hand or a small pillow on the wall near their head, and if they do this I quickly slide it down to be between the wall and their head before they hit.