Pandemic Back to School
Week 21
Day 140 – August 2, 2020
Leah and I got up early, got ready for a day at the amusement/water park, Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. First stop was the Harpers house where we picked up Leah’s BFF Penny and followed her family to the park.
I never in a million years would have thought that wearing a mask in an amusement park would be a thing I would consider doing. We did. Masks are required as you enter the park (lots of congestion getting people through metal detectors and scanning tickets), inside all buildings, and anywhere you can’t be 6 feet from people not in your party. They implemented a FastPass type system where you wait in line via your phone. It’s only for the most popular lines, and we only used it for two rides, the rapids, and the indoor turkey shoot-out ride (it’s a lot like the Buzz Lightyear ride at Hollywood Studios).
We actually had to wait in a physical line for the rapids as well as on the phone because they had to do some kind of maintenance. Walls had been erected in the line area to keep people separated, and it was a little claustrophobic at times. We wore our masks (it was open air, with a roof) and stayed away from the groups before and after us. Once we got on the ride, we got soaked. It wasn’t very hot out, only about 80 degrees, so the water was pretty chilly.
We ate lunch at the Thanksgiving restaurant, but I think the food used to be better. Leah was a little sad that she didn’t get macaroni and cheese as her side dish, but she didn’t see it. (Couldn’t see much of anything because she didn’t wear her contacts… didn’t want to lose them in the water).
We went to the water park and let the babies play in the little kid area. Then we moved to the wave pool and Penny and Leah and Dave went on a water coaster. I guess it was a little more intense than the girls were expecting. Around that time, some REALLY dark clouds moved in, and we decided to get Dole Whip. Who knew you could get that at Holiday World. It rained on us at that point. I tried a strawberry Dole whip, and everyone else got pineapple. The pineapple is better, but mine was about three times bigger (I think that was an accident). Most of us did not finish, but almost 5 year old Jacinda cleaned up all the extra, lol.
The twins just turned 2, and they clearly don’t remember anything pre-quarantine. Holiday World was quite a lot for them to take in. I held each of them from time to time. Indigo likes me. Violet pretends I don’t exist, even when I’m holding her. They did really well.
By the time Leah and I got home, we were just exhausted. We ended up eating leftovers from the fridge for dinner.
Day 141 – Monday, August 3, 2020
I had quite the busy day! I got up early, got ready, ate breakfast, and left to go grocery shopping at 7am. By the time I got home and got everything put away, I had to head to school for a (web) conference at 10am. I decided I wanted to be in my office to get my mind in the right frame of mind, and I wanted to drop off some stuff as well.
The meeting was for a new student. I can’t access his paperwork because the local computer system only talks to the state computer system once a week…. I have a copy of his old paperwork, and I only need to update the speech part, but I can’t. I think the two computers have their chats on Thursday at midnight. Ridiculous.
On the way to school it POURED. It’s a 10-minute drive. It was barely sprinkling when I left home, and I waited in the car for about two minutes after I arrived at school for it to stop. Then when I was getting ready to come home it started pouring again, but it was short lived again. Crazy weather.
At home I vacuumed and did laundry since they didn’t happen yesterday. After lunch I took Elijah to get a haircut. I could get used to the “by appointment only”. I still take him to the kids’ haircut place, and they’ve always been walk-in only. We were the only people there. It was perfect. She worked and worked on his hair for an entire hour, but it looks fantastic! He got butchered back in early March, and I think all of that (thinned out part) has finally grown out. Lesson learned. Don’t let anyone thin out curly hair…
On the way home I stopped at Starbucks so Elijah could get a Frappuccino. My drink came in a glorified sippy cup. I was about to ask for a straw when I realized what was going on with the lid. I guess it’s fine, I can drink from a sippy cup, lol.
We had another couple of torrential rains before it cleared up around 4:30, so I was able to grill dinner (yay!).
Today should have been the day that I reported to school for the first teacher workday of the new school year…. Elijah starts school on Wednesday. He finished his summer assignment for English today; however, he’s unable to submit it via Schoology because none of the classes have been assigned yet. Fun times. I told him to check tomorrow.
Day 142 – Tuesday, August 4, 2020
I slept “in” until 6am and ate breakfast outside. It was downright chilly at 65 degrees. I made sure all the kids were up at a reasonable time.
Hannah and I went to the big thrift store that’s been closed since March. Everything is 50% off! I found a couple of pairs of jeans (they look new) and a glass pitcher. Hannah found some shirts for school.
I took Leah to Dollar Tree and Thornton’s for a free candy bar and a Fizz Freeze. I also got a tank of gas for $20. Leah found a couple of things to make into earrings and key chains, and I found a few trinkets to use as bribes for my students. I got some cool dinosaurs and some fake Legos. All things that can be sprayed with bleach water…
I learned how to make java chip Frappuccino, and I made some for Hannah and Elijah. I think they were both impressed with how tasty they were. I was surprised at how simple they are to make, and they probably cost $0.50.
I had a web conference with the head of speech therapy, the director of special education, and all 30 speech therapists. Honestly, we learned very little because when it comes to specifics, “every school is different”. We did get on disappointing piece of news. The students who have opted to switch to Virtual Academy will be served by the speech therapist from their physical school. No idea how that is supposed to work.
Heather and the youngest four Harpers came for a short visit. The just-turned-two-year-old twins were enamored with the cats. I’ve never heard those girls so chatty! They were super happy and animated. All the cats got as much petting as they could tolerate. The twins were also pretty thrilled with the box of Nerf guns we brought home from Oklahoma, lol.
We had chicken tacos for Taco Tuesday, and there were no leftovers, so I guess they were a hit. Last week’s too green avocado made some decent guacamole. Avocados have been weird lately.
After dinner I mowed the lawn since it hadn’t rained in about 24 hours. It was THICK and still kind of wet. I did not mow the bottom of the hill since I expect it’s a swamp.
Tomorrow, Elijah starts school. He doesn’t have a supply list yet, so he doesn’t have much to pack in his backpack…. His school is still doing block schedule, and his A day classes are not likely to be his favorites (world history, English, German, and chemistry… he’s happy there’s a science). His B day has most of his preferred classes (algebra2, physics, government, and AP survey).
I saw the best meme today: “I can’t believe spring break is almost over”. Five months later… our area is having it’s first wave now. I think we are all taking bets in our head for how long in person school will last.
Day 143 – Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Today was Elijah’s first day of his sophomore year at Signature School. I think he enjoyed being back at school, and he liked his teachers for today even though history and English aren’t his favorites. He was very excited about his chemistry teacher. His thoughts on COVID school were as follows: not enough social distancing in classrooms (but everyone is wearing a mask); it was weird to have 1-2 kids’s faces on an giant board at the back of the class (virtual students); while lunch was outside, it was crowded, and few to no masks because it’s lunch. There was already a COVID related incident, though not at Elijah’s grade level. That does not bode well for the public schools starting in two weeks.
Elijah and I got up at 5am (yawn) to get ready. He wanted to get to school when I would normally drop him off, and not closer to the start of the school day. He can enter the building at 7am, and we got there about 7:10.
Around 9am, I took the girls to Hobby Lobby for more craft supplies for Leah. She was sad when we got home, and she realized she’d gotten the wrong thing for one project.
I made a dermatologist appointment, and a haircut appointment, and called the eye doctor to check on when our contact lenses would arrive. I was able to pick up another pair of trial lenses for Elijah to replace the one he ripped. To do that I had to go back to the other side of town, so I stopped by Hobby Lobby (again) and got the right supplies for Leah. I also remembered to stop at the credit union and close my account tied to my previous mortgage. I had a very productive day! I just need to schedule an oil change for Hannah’s car, and I think my to do list will be about done. There are SO many projects I just didn’t get around to during Pandemic… it was not a time for home improvement for me.
I got everything done in time to pick up Elijah from school. Normally, he’d go to Central Library, but it’s currently closed to the public. They hope to open it for students soon…. He met me at the YMCA instead. Once my school starts, and I’m a bit later picking him up, he’ll walk the indoor track while he waits.
Once we got home, I had all of the start of school papers to sign. We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Afterward, I sat on the deck for quite a while because it was chilly after the sun started to set. Leah (and Libby via FaceTime) joined me for a while.
I’m exhausted because I went to bed too late last night and had to get up early. So, I’m off to bed at 9:30. Once my school starts, it will be more like 8:30 then eventually 7:30, lol.
Day 144 – Thursday, August 6, 2020
Wiped out!! How do we do this full time?
I got Elijah to school at 7am, but his new contact lens was bothering him. Thinking it was wrong side out, he flipped it around at school, but that was worse. He tried to tough it out, but around 9:00, I got a text from him requesting his glasses and contact lens case. So, I ran that to school. Turns out the lens is defective, but we didn’t know that until he got home and I inspected it. His supply of contacts should arrive in a few days, so he’s in glasses until then.
I got home from the contact lens emergency just in time for my 10am WebEx building level special education meeting. It wasn’t too long. Leah and I ate lunch before I headed to my Teacher Locker appointment (donated teacher supplies that we can “shop” once a year… its new). I found some good organizational supplies and a few odds and end that could be useful.
I decided to take everything to school, but I had to stop at home to get my badge to get me in the door. I chatted up a couple of teachers and decided to finally get a few things organized in my office. I filled up my new desk drawer organizer and put it my desk… and it jammed. I worked and worked to get it unjammed, but I’m going to have to bring a screwdriver and take the drawer out.
Elijah stayed late for a cross country meeting, so I guess he’s going to do that. After we got home, he gave me all of his syllabi to figure out what school supplies he needed, and there were a few forms to sign.
I got the grill going to grill burgers for dinner. It was all fun and games until I almost couldn’t get the frozen burgers separated from each other, even with the butcher paper between them.
After dinner Elijah and I went shopping for his school supplies. As we drove into the Walmart parking lot that it had been a really long time since he had been to a store, probably 6 months or more. We were able to get all the folders, binders, pens, dividers, etch, but not a protractor or the graphing calculator he needed. We went to Office Depot and found those things. When we got home, Leah happily organized all of his supplies. I had 4 books to order from Amazon for AP English as well.
It was a very long day, and I’m ready for bed.
Day 145 – Friday, August 7, 2020
After taking Elijah to school, I spent some quality time relaxing on the deck. It was amazing! Around 9am he sent me a text saying someone had stepped on his glasses. Seriously? Unless, someone stepped on your face, this is your fault…. He is having ALL kinds of eye correction troubles. He ripped his right contact. Replaced them with a new trial pair. New left contact was defective and irritated his eye. Glasses stepped on. At least the glasses aren’t new and they look fixable.
There were some rumors floating around that EVSC would make an announcement today, but that never came to pass.
At 10am I had a WebEx meeting with the Daniel Wertz staff where our principal went over some procedures we’ll be using. I had an 11am training 20 minutes away, so I called into the WebEx via my phone. I was able to listen until 10:55 so I initially missed the last 20 minutes of the WebEx.
From 11:00-12:30 I got recertified for Safe Crisis Management for, I believe, my 7th year. It’s a de-escalation and physical restraint program that’s used in special education. Normally, we practice and test out our skills on each other, but… COVID. So, we had dummies made out of pool noodles (they were pretty ingenious) to restrain, and we wore masks when we had to restrain with a partner (we wore masks most of the time).
After that, I ran home, grabbed a screwdriver and some Goo Gone and went to my office for 90 minutes. I got my desk drawer unjammed (I loosened the screws holding the track that the drawer slides on). That was a surprisingly quick fix with the proper tools. No more drawer organizer in that drawer! Then I spent a good long time getting the stickers off my “new” file boxes and caddies I got yesterday. Even with Goo Gone it was a struggle, but I prevailed.
I picked up Elijah at 3:15, but when I left school, I turned left to go home instead of right to go downtown, so I added a few minutes and miles to the drive. I still got there a few minutes early.
I ordered pizza and played Animal Crossing until the Switch had to be charged. After dinner I listened to the last 20 minutes of this morning’s WebEx only it took over an hour because it would only load a minute of video at a time.
Another long, busy day, and I’m ready for bed!
Day 146 – Saturday, August 8, 2020
Elijah and I got up at 6am so he could get ready to volunteer at the Franklin Street Bazaar. I think he’s feeling pretty good about going now. He tried a disposable mask, but it was an immediate “nope” because it’s too dry and papery. He’s not a fan of touching paper… ever.
While he was gone, I did laundry and worked on sewing four, plain, navy masks. I’m pretty proud of these masks because they are contoured, and they have a wire to fit around your nose. They also have an opening for a filter, if you have one. I already had them cut out, and I had to stop and make lunch and switch laundry, so they took about two hours of work. I might make another four tomorrow. Elijah and Hannah are both interested in plain masks for school.
I took Elijah to CVS Minute Clinic for a sports physical. He just went to the doctor last week, but our doctor is out of town, and the coach wants the forms by Monday…. So, he got another physical. The CVS closest to us didn’t have any appointments (it might have been closed), so the next closest was on 1st Avenue. I didn’t not realize there were two CVS’s on 1st Ave…. but they are only 5 minutes apart, so we were just a few minutes late. She was the sweetest Kentuckian ever. Elijah was less than thrilled to be poked and prodded. Afterward, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts because it was practically next door, and Elijah loves donuts.
We had ranch chicken sandwiches for dinner, and I realized that I did not buy the food for tomorrow’s dinner. Pork tenderloin is on the menu, but I didn’t buy one…. I’m thinking chicken fried steak sounds good. It’s been years since I made that.
0 comments:
Post a Comment