JCC Coronavirus Escape Pod (Vent/Emotional Support/Share/Homeschool Help!))

WFH 2-3 days a week will be until at least mid June next year unless a miracle and schools do a 180 from their already planned 2 day a week in person classes. Since I'll be over a year in at that point I can't imagine them trying to make me come in 4 days a week again (assuming I still have this job).

Also something occurred to me last night semi virus related. I was watching an old clip of the Ed Sullivan show on YouTube and I thought when was Ed Sullivan born so I asked Google. Turns out Ed Sullivan was born in 1901. I went to his Wikipedia page and sure enough he got his first job in high school (no mention of the exact year) second job in 1919 at a newspaper, all this obviously during the Spanish Flu pandemic in NYC, but there is no mention of the pandemic. And I've seen multiple documentaries on Ed Sullivan never have I heard him or anyone mention surviving or living thru a crazy time period with a pandemic. Yet somehow I imagine in 40-60 years from now people will still be bringing up living through this one.

 

My grandmother (my mom's mom) remembered the pandemic of 1918 well along with several other relatives. She used to tell us stories about it especially once they drag someone into the house who collapsed in front of their house due to it. I am not sure if any of my family here got it but I do know nobody died of it incredibly. My grandma was scared to death of the flu (along with my other grandparents and their siblings) therefore they beat it into our heads. Get your bleeping flu shot every year and take care of yourself physically.

The 1918 pandemic is known as the "lost pandemic" because it was cover up a lot by the government and even newspapers due to the war effort. There are some good books about it though. One I read was all first hand accounts. It sounded like something out of a horror movie.

Edit: My grandmother was a treasure btw. Even though she was really young she remembered all that stuff vividly. WWI, the flu pandemic, even the 1919 White Sox scandal lol. We documented as much as we could over the years.

 

Man I wish we would do this. Instead I have to go put myself at risk for no reason in another few weeks. Yaaay

 

+1 , and I'm very concerned, even with a masking and six foot distancing policy. I just wonder how much those two protocols will mitigate the negative risk factors (sharing small indoor spaces with poor ventilation with college students for several hours at a time, four days a week...)

 

Here's a fun fact I didn't tell my 12 year old son that masks will be required in school in the fall. I just asked him, "If you go back two days a week like they are planning and if they say wear masks do you think kids will wear them."

Son's answer: "hell no"

Good luck teachers! My son wears a mask whenever we go out without argument, but I'm not sure what he'd do if there's peer pressure. Also if distance can't be kept some kids might try to take other kids masks right off or snap them. I don't know I remember school being a rather rough and scary place sometimes. I should ask him why he said that, because now I wonder why he has so little faith.

 

Yeah I mean I have asthma so I loooove putting myself at risk for no reason. We can't even socialize, so being back in the office is pointless.

 

OH, boy so they are having baseball in Fairfax VA, or at least they are going to try, but our kids aren't playing. One of our kids is too young since he'll be 7 in Sept and they decided to change the ages because kids under 7 can't follow rules. Mostly though the rules are unrealistic and ridiculous. We just gotta wait until it's safe. Here's the rules:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.leagueathletics.com/Text/Documents/8748/73495.pdf

Again mostly heartbreaking for me and the 6 year old as we are the outdoorsy athletic folks in the house. 100% understandable, no not really to be honest I think they should cancel the whole season. I'm mad at the DCRR (DC road runners) for organizing at least one "race" this summer too. 100 person limit, 10 wave starts of 10 people each, no water stop, no refreshments at the finish, you must social distance at the start and finish. Seriously, what is the point?

Also work from home with kid/s is not working! And it looks like this is going on until July of next year. HELP!!!

 

I'm tempted to start offering treatments for this condition:

 

haha, that's a great poster, Ben! Do you know if it's an actual historical document (WWI? WWII?)

 

Well, some good news. I talked to our HR head, who is also the head of project management which I work for so I know her well. I was just asking about when we're going to be getting more info on our return on July 20th. She said "between you and me, I don't think we're going back in July after all."

And then I asked her about those of us with pre-existing conditions (I have asthma). She said "we won't force you guys with pre-existing conditions to come back in".

Soooo I don't know when I'd need to come back. I honestly would rather not go back into the office until there's a vaccine.

 

It's real:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wipers_Times

The TV drama was superb, as is the stage play - so if you ever get the chance to see either, take it.

The amount of crap they got away, publishing a newspaper in the trenches of WW1, was quite amazing.

 

Wipers as in what the Allies called Ypres because they couldn't pronounce it?

 

Exactly. This company found a typewriter in a blasted house in the area and started doing this unofficial newspaper.

 

I've been to Ypres. Lovely place... Now.

 

They didn't cancel for the year, they just made the decision that learning is either option A all virtual or option B 2 days in school (if you choose 2 days in school you just get homework for the other 2 days of school. Virtual learning is 4 days a week. Mondays are always teacher work days. So I can't go back to work more than 2 days or maybe 3 days a week (if hubby can be home) until summer camp next year. Unless amazing miracle and we all get vaccinated so school can reopen full time.

 

Rather than my usual ho-hum, Fred Mertz-esque feelings at work, lately the stresses & pressure of continuing to basically have my same work routines & schedule in this COVID era is starting to wear down on me. Was catching up with a dear friend some days ago, and called what I/our team does at Target heroic... sure as hell doesn't feel that way. Customers come in bright & early, expecting to find certain things on the shelves at that time, without realizing often (or at all) that we don't get the same amount of freight delivered each day, supply chain issues or not. A mix-up today with the guest services desk telling folks we had Clorox wipes in stock, when we literally were out. Nobody bothered or forgot to ask anyone that's a part of the unloading team.



Too many things are just bleak, or are trending that way. I eventually need a new goddamn career.

 

very interesting @Jedi Ben . I've always been interested in the WWI era but did not know about The Wipers Times. I will definitely have to put the BBC drama about it on my to-watch list if I can find a way to access it. Thank you for sharing that.

 

It's murder to find over here, but I'm pretty certain there's a R1 DVD release on your side of the water.

 

I'm taking my first PTO this year for a long holiday weekend. I do IT work for a state government agency which mostly handles health facility and food inspections. Most of the office is working from home and I'm there keeping everyone afloat. I don't mind it really - casual dress, a quieter office means more work getting done, and I have no problem at all with finding a place to park. Masks aren't required as the 10 people in my office are so far flung, but the logistics of it all is so damn tiring that I worry this time off may not be enough.

 

Whew, just listened to two meetings the first was the elementary school return to learn information meeting. Very disorganized they allowed parent questions and I only got to go to half because middle school was up next. Middle school was very informative. They were smart enough not to take questions but provided a link to ask questions and they will answer them later. Answers will be provided to everyone on the website once answered. All as expected except the worst news which is they don't even know what electives will be offered next year. These kids are missing so much i personally wish they could not do grades again until school can be in person and able to breath on each other. Yes I want my kids to start whatever grade they are supposed to start this fall either next year 2021 or even fall of 2022 if necessary because the half an education or less they are going to get next year cheats everyone really badly. My kids deserve the electives and the group learning and lunch with their friends and everything school is about. They don't deserve to have all this robbed from them. But that's my opinion. At least I really like how the middle school handled their meeting and I think it will be a good place for my kid even if he gets to attend 1/4th of the school he would during normal times.

Also I want to say that my 6 year old was assigned to ESY (summer school) And it's going So Much Better than the regular school year. A teacher who knows how to use technology has been assigned to him. We log in my son engages with the teacher she can share a screen he can draw on it with his finger. OH my gosh where was this wonderful technology from April - June? Why are we just getting good instruction now? Mostly cause he was assigned a technologically challenged teacher. I wish I knew how to get him assigned a great teacher like this in the fall. But I don't want to complain, complain, complain. That would make me a Karen and trust me the number of times I have tried to stand up for this kid already makes me a Karen

Also the teeny tiny pool my son picked out on the Wal-Mart website (cause I tell myself Wal-Mart is a tiny bit better than Amazon) arrived today. He loves it, don't tell him it's small

Spoiler

We got a townhouse our backyard is small anyway.

Also shout out to @DarthTunick I can't imagine how rough your job is right now. We all have our own individual struggles during this time. Hoping some customers give you a break and maybe a few even say "thank you".

 

A few have said thank you, which has been nice.

 

Thank you @Runjedirun but really I don't think any of it especially like my wife and I have been telling many of our colleagues (or she tells her faculty), when we decided to get into education we understand our first priority is to keep the kids and our fellow educators safe. Staying as socially distant as possible this upcoming school year is just another way of doing that. Plus tbh? It is not a big deal for me at all. As my wife says I always been kinda of a home body and always felt more comfortable in smaller groups (as I tell people, I feel most at home as part of a small subculture which always puts me at odds with my in laws who are products of the counter culture of the late 60's LOL!) especially as I gotten older therefore staying at home and avoiding large crowds is not a big deal at all for me. I am much much much mucb much more comfortable at this point in my life staying at home to either read a book, watch a movie/TV show or sit out on our patio with my wife and are sometimes joined by our neighbors which reminds me of my childhood since that is what my parents did most nights. They just sit out on the patio as us kids run around the neighborhood playing "Kick the Can" and other games which are some of my happiest memories from childhood (which our neighbors all said we are trying to bring to our children, that sense of neighborhood community that is like family). I don't need to go eat out like I said many times before (pickup and tip is fine especially I get to enjoy our patio which we spent good money on LOL), not a fan of spending huge money for professional sporting events even if they were happening (prefer minor league and high school games), not a big "party" guy even when I was younger so no way am I that way now etc. Again like we talk about the one thing I miss is the gym which I just put on a hold on our account to November 1st since I want to see how this all plays out before we go back. My wife is a bit more of a sacrifice since she is more of a social butterfly then me but again she gets why we are doing it.

It's my kids that are sacrificing the most with this. Again I told you how upset the boys were we are not letting them play baseball this fall. And they were even more mad that I told them we were not rejoining the gym until things get better. They were really not happy with that. And while we are letting them see a few friends and their little cousins, their "COVID-19 circle" is very small like ours. And like I stated before we are not going to movies even after they open or doing any type of big birthday parties etc so again to me they are the ones who are really sacrificing for us. We did decided to let my daughter rejoin her gymnastics class once a week because it's a small family own business and for once social media really help solved a big problem. The "waiting room" for parents is not that big and when you have both younger and older parents there it can get crowded really fast which the owner was struggling with. But the older parents on Facebook said we will just sit in our cars and/or run errands while their kids are at lessons/practice, just make sure the younger parents kids are there since they need to see their parents. So now the numbers work a lot better that the parents can social distance while wearing masks while in the waiting room plus her "class" is very small and we know everyone in it so we feel comfortable with it. She is not going back to her swim lessons though since they are done thru our gym and again we decided to hold our membership for now. Meanwhile with the boys, I sign them up for a late summer/fall golf league since I wanted them to do something. They really gotten into golf and tennis this summer since we play all the time (plus my wife showed them some of my golf and tennis trophies from my junior days and think they want the same) therefore they are going to be in a golf league starting the end of the month. They play together with the two other friends of theirs (part of our COVID circle) and will be with them every single week so it's not like they will be playing with all kinds of different kids every week. It's the same foursome every week. They see it as a decent consolidation prize for not playing fall baseball. Will see how it plays out.

Interesting btw how your district is always going with 2 days opt in only. We are still on the three-way model of either all in, hybrid or remote learning that will need to be implemented at any time. We just got a email from the superintendent that will have our Zoom district meetings next week to go over general outlines and timelines. That was a bit earlier then we were told as back in June we were told expect those Zoom district meetings to be held in mid-July. Guess someone look at the calendar and realized our first institute day is schedule for August 11th which by the decree of the district board is set in stone so I think they realized they better start giving us plans and timelines now considering it's going to be about a month until we need to have everything set. The talk among the campfire is that will start in a hybrid 50% of kids to begin the year and see how it goes. They apparently made it clear they do not want to start off in remote unless absolutely necessary and for now, our number of cases both in the state and especially locally are good so *fingers crossed* it stays that way to mid-August. Basically they want to start the year in a hybrid form and see how it goes. Things going well? Everyone can roll into full instruction. Going poorly? We can transition quickly to remote learning. But the goal is to start the year with at least 50% capacity and go from there. Will see how it all shakes out. Right now the school is empty other then minimum staff, band practice (which I seen it's quite inventive), and some sports like cross country. Our football has done some very small group stuff but that is it. I think they know even if things go well they are not playing this year. I hold out hope we can push it back to the spring but that seems too big of a hurdle as well. So by next week the assumption will have a general outline/time frame laid out for us therefore we need to start planning accordingly. My wife said it best. The entire country's goal should be the same. We do this for one school year. That is it. We worked together to overcome this thing and get our kids back in school regularly in 2021-2022. I think if we work together it can happen (and even have a decent 2020-2021 school year in most areas) but the country needs to get on the same page of COVID-19. Enough of the "bleep you I get mine" mentality therefore I won't wear a mask or quarantine when I should. Again hope my wife is right that the battles we are having for it now (which seem to finally going correctly) will pay off six months from now).

Very cool btw about the kiddo and his pool, I am really happy you found something. It really does make it a difference at least in my experience (the boys are as we speak playing with the slip n slide) and plus who cares if it's a bit small. If it makes him happy, it makes him happy!

On a much lighter note, remember that one student who talk about how he finally got the girl of his dreams to go out with him after he asked her out but because they were in quarantine? Update, their parents finally agreed to let them go out so he reach out to me of all people for advice. I don't know why but he did. I told him flat out the last time I went out on a first date he was not born yet. No joke. But he asked for my advice anyway so I tried to help him the best he could. He dated before but said he never felt this nervous before and she's actually a neighbor of mine so I think he wanted to know more about the parents too. I gave him the best advice I could including that to make sure they were seeing a movie at the drive in last night (which is where they went) that they seen before. I did not explain why but I hope he can read between the lines on that aka I was young once too and took dates to make out/have fun at the drive in. Hell my wife and I might go later this summer LOL! I also told him to be a gentleman AT ALL TIMES, obey her parents curfew and try to do something special for her early on to let her know you intend this to be more then to be just a friend's night out. I suggested a single rose on the passenger seat as she gets in. Work well for me in the past but again that was almost twenty years ago! He said he let me know after the holiday how it went so I am curious if my old 1999 rules for dating playbook still worked in 2020!

Yes @Juliet316 we definitely seen more of that stuff as well. We had to buy more toilet paper even though I did not want to but my wife is going thru a cleanse diet and it's well wrecking havoc on her tummy (why she decided to do this now after she lost weight during quarantine and all the stress of trying to plan the school year I don't know but she is anyway while my daughter is four and has not master the art of the correct amount of TP. So we go enough to last us well int the fall I believe if not longer. There was plenty and even though there was no limit I just got one big bundle of it

And the fireworks are lasting later now though my neighbor said a police officer in the area told him they are going to let it go until 11 PM this weekend. Then they are asking people to please stop. I think that is reasonable though fireworks are illegal here anyway. The large area behind the park near our house is where they are shooting it. There is a large group of college kids home from the summer in the area (a few former students) and I think they are shooting them off. I worry about their safety then causing a disturbance/trouble. They actually built a social distancing circle at another park (our neighborhood has tons and tons of parks) with a tent and chairs in a circle six feet apart. I saw them there last Friday night. I felt like saying you are being way more responsible then many of your peers and even people my age....or older!

 

Thank you.