Tag: school

Four for Four

Well, that’s all of us.  My step son’s school district has shut down for two weeks.  They are going to take a couple of days to try and setup some remote learning systems and start having online classes on Wednesday.

So Harry has high school classes at home, Bellana has college classes at home, Jen has work from home, and ol’ Robbie has work from home.  All for at least the next two weeks.

It’s going to be tough having all of us trying to work at the same time.  We’re going to get in each other’s way and we’re going to get on each other’s nerves, and if everything works out the way we want we will look back on this and see it as a successful waste of time.  A little sacrifice today will lead to an easier time for our health care professionals in the coming weeks.  That’s the goal at least.

We’re all in this shit show together, and we are up to the challenge.

The Telecommute Call

The telecommuting call for my company has been made.  It will be for at least two weeks and it will start Monday.  That’s actually good as there is something I need to do at my desk tomorrow.

In our house, Jen is already telecommuting.  Bellana will start remote classes on Wednesday.  I will start telecommuting on Monday.  All we have left is Harry’s high school.  What’s it gonna be, high school?  Are you going to jump on the resource management bandwagon or are you going to keep insisting you know better than all of the experts who actually study how to handle this sort of situation?  Are you going to make a small sacrifice that might make life easier on our soon-to-be-overtaxed health care industry, or are you going to keep letting large groups of people meet and contribute to the infection spike which will potentially put our soon-to-be-overtaxed health care industry into a state where there are more patients than beds and supplies?  What’s it gonna be?

Music and Irish, Separately

Today is a day with two themes.  Music and Irishness.

Music because I have band practice, and my step daughter has pit rehearsal for her school play.

Irish because my beautiful bride, Jen is making corned beef.  I predict that it’s going to need salt.  Corned beef can never, ever be salty enough.  Jen always does a great job.

On an unrelated note, Facebook got weird this morning in a sad way.  I friended a guitar player that I’m a big fan of.  Today he was tagged in a post with one of my former teachers from Northeast Broadcast School.  Gotta admit, he was not my favorite guy there.  Something about him rubbed me the wrong way.  He was nice enough, very smart, and very talented.  There was just… something.  I clicked on him to see what he’s been up to.  He’s still in the same awesome band, which is nice.  I was surprised to see him tagged in another post with another one of my teachers from NBS.  This was a guy whose class I enjoyed very much.  He was a great guy.  Unfortunately he passed away recently.  Damn.  I hadn’t thought about him in years, and now he’s gone.  Very sad.

First Day of School

Just yesterday I met my wife’s kids for the first time.  There was a six year old who had just started first grade, and a four year old pre-schooler.  Somehow, just hours later, we have two middle school kids starting eighth and sixth grade respectively.  One of them is even a teenager!

Where the hell did the time go?

Wish my wonderful, brilliant, amazing step kids a happy first day of school.  Only 179 school days left until summer vacation!

Feeling a Little Blue

I dropped off the kids at their dad’s this morning. Jen and I won’t see them again until after they start school. My step son is going to have his first day of middle school this week and I’m not going to be able to help build him up if he’s feeling nervous. I mean, the kid is as sharp as a razor, he’s going to excel in middle school. But he’s nervous the way every kid is when they move up a school. I just feel bad that I can’t be there to help him along. Next year his sister will start high school. Maybe I can come through for her then, but that doesn’t make me feel any better today. Oh well.

Last Weekend

This weekend is a big deal. It is the last weekend before school starts. Bittersweet for the kids, to say the least, and time for the grown ups’ morning schedules to be thrown into a little bit of chaos.

Jen and my step daughter have a big event planned for tomorrow. My step son and I are staying home, possibly to watch Star Wars movies all day long. That suits me fine! Maybe Sunday we can think of something interesting to do to wrap up the summer school vacation. I don’t know yet.

Any ideas?

Threat

The kids and I were all packed up and ready to go to school this morning when my beloved wife, who was sitting at her desk feeling sick as a dog, told us to hold on a second.  She had just checked her email and there was something from the superintendant of schools.  Apparently, there was some unspecified threat made against the school system and the super was forwarding the information on to all of the parents.  The FBI had been notified and there would be police present at all schools today.

A quick discussion was had between my wife and the kids father and it was decided that we should keep them home today.  It’s the last day of school before Christmas vacation, so it’s not like we would be depriving them of any vital knowledge.  Nana and Papa were coming over today anyway, so we figured we’d try as hard as our sick bodies would allow us to have a bit of an early Christmasy kinda day.  When Jen called the schools to let them know the kids would be absent today, she got busy signals.  It sounds like our kids won’t be the only ones MIA today.

I know this is going to amount to nothing.  It’s just some asshole trying to feel important in the wake of Newtown, CT.  Still, why even mess with it?  If the risk of danger is 0.01%, that is too much risk.  Better to keep them home where the only danger is catching this bastard of a cold/flu/whatever it is bug that Jen and I have.

Now on a personal note, during the mom and dad discussion it was decided to not let the kids know exactly why they were being kept home.  So if you read this, you have to keep it to yourself, okay?  No telling the kids.  Thanks