2020 Life Logs, Day 209: AC versus OS
Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Weather: Still Sunny, Hot, and Breezy; High 89, Low 70 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It was another sunny and hot day here on the Cape. I assumed that the Goldpebbles would want to head to the beach, so I dressed for the beach and packed a lunch for all of us. But when I arrived to pick them up, they had decided that the AC inside was preferable to the heat OS (OutSide). All three boys were deep into playing with Legos, so I let them play while I did a little work on the drip irrigation system that I am slowly working on getting installed on their deck. Yesterday we tried the front yard irrigation system and found some issues. But last night Jed did some further research and found that there are problems with the way it was origin installed. Fixing it is going to take quite some time and a lot of money, so I’ll install a temporary system out front as well. But not today. It was 2 pm before the boys were ready to head outside and they decided to come back to my house to sink (and retrieve) kayaks instead of going to the beach. They had a great time doing this yesterday and they repeated that today. They jumped and dove into the water from a neighboring dock where the water is a little deeper, and try as they might, they couldn’t sink a kayak! But they had a wonderful time trying.
Tonight I tuned into the local School Committee Meeting where the school plan for this fall was to be unveiled. After two hours of watching, with no specific plan unveiled, I headed into the kitchen to fix a salad for myself for dinner. Naturally, while I was doing that, I heard a plan for Sam’s school being outlined by the Superintendent. Seemed backwards to me to present details first and the plan at the end. For whatever reason, the sound on the local community TV station airing the Zoom meeting was very hard to hear. I’ll have to hope the local newspaper prints the plan. But whatever it is, I just do not see how it is going to be safe to have all students returning to the classroom in September. I did hear enough to know that there are three parts to the plan—all students returning to school, half of the students in school at one time with the other half working remotely, and total remote learning. I know that the heads of all parents in this country are spinning right now as they try to figure out what to do with their children this fall. And as a teacher of 30 years, I’m sure every teacher is in a true quandary. Unfortunately, no one has the answers, but it sure would be comforting to have strong national leadership on this issue to so crucial to all.
