Sweet 16 weeks? Sixteen candles make a lovely sight? Roughly four months ... 16 weeks ... 112 days ... let's not keep progressing down to hours, minutes, and seconds. Let's just agree it's been a hell of a long time. I will admit that when all this started, I did not really consider how long it might go on. Now, though, I can say four more months or even a couple of times that seem quite possible. At least my bangs will have grown out by then.
Working toward the floor refinishing fiasco, I have been going through all sorts of boxes not to mention younger son's bedroom, the one room in which the floors will not be refinished. That's where we hope to put much of the master bedroom furniture. I also went through some boxes packed when I moved my mom out of her condo and into senior living. I found three expired passports. Evidently in the century before this one, families could travel on one passport. I've heard of this being done in other countries, but never knew it was done here as well. The "family" page of two of the passports are shown below.
The page on the left is from a passport valid from 1970 to 1975. Note that it lists "wife" in addition to "minor children." It actually reminds me of what I've heard about Saudi Arabia's not letting a woman leave the country without the permission of a husband, father, or other male relative. The page on the right is from a passport valid from 1975 to 1980. "Wife/Husband" would, I guess, mean that a husband and minor children could travel on the wife's passport. The fine print at the bottom of the page on the one on the right (but not the one on the left) is "Persons included herein may not use this passport for travel unless accompanied by the bearer."
The times they have been changing. If I remembered where I put it, I'd pull out the tennis trophy from Mom's victory in the Housewife's Tennis Tournament at the country club to which we belonged from my grade 2 through grade 5 years.
Mentioning my own elementary school years makes me wonder how a pandemic might have been handled then, before virtual education was possible. Interesting aside or "fun fact" here: I spent grades 6 and 7 at a small school operated by a university where their education students could student teach or do practicums. In grade 6, we did some math from a university in California. I remember sitting at what I later called a Dec-Writer or something like that, a bulky typewriter-like machine with wide paper output. A problem would get typed out, and we would work the problem and type the answer. Virtual learning before it was really a thing.
Anyway, the local school divisions--one for the city and one for the surrounding county--are supposed to announce their plans for fall as early as this week. So far, they've said that school will start some three weeks later than it otherwise would have, on September 8. The city is talking about grades K through 6 attending school in person four days each week. For grades 7 through 12, parents may be the ones deciding if their kids do all virtual or attend in person a couple days each week. But here's the key statement from the local paper's article: "Neither Charlottesville nor Albemarle have announced plans to require masks for the upcoming school year." At least in the city, there's a petition going around among teachers arguing for masks. Included with the petition is a list of very good questions that one would hope are being or will be considered. Things such as what symptoms might get a kid sent to the nurse's office. What about parents who give their kids acetaminophen to take a low-grade fever down if schools monitor temps as kids arrive each morning. Substitute teachers were hard to find before the pandemic; how will a teacher's absence be handled. And what will the guidelines be for students or staff to return from quarantine.
Some years ago, several people tried to get me to run for a seat on the county school board. I declined. I would hate being on the board now. There is no right decision here, certainly no one size fits many, let alone all decision. The issues for K-12 overlap some with issues for higher education, but there are some pretty big differences. Child care for one. What does a working parent with elementary-school kids do on the day(s) they are to be using virtual education? I've heard this same point made with respect to middle- or high-school students. There are valid reasons a working parent might not want them left home alone all day.
Meanwhile, records of new-case numbers continue to fall. We are not far from seeing 60,000 new cases in one day, well on the way to the 100,000 per day suggested by Dr. Fauci. And we will go over 130,000 deaths tomorrow if we didn't today. Sixteen doesn't sound so sweet any longer.
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