When the husband's mother lived in British Columbia, we tried to visit her every year or two. We would combine visiting her in Kamloops, BC with touristing. One year, we planned on taking the coastal ferry from Vancouver Island up to Prince Rupert then driving south to Kamloops stopping along the way at a restored old West town called Barkerville. While perusing a BC guidebook, I learned that by going 137 miles (one way, so 274 miles round trip) out of our way, we could visit the easternmost town in Alaska, Hyder. Hyder sits just across the border from Stewart, British Columbia. Even more exciting, we could do this on the weekend in which Canada Day, July 1, fell on Friday and Independence Day, July 4, fell on Monday. How could we not do this? We'd be able to check Alaska off the list of states we had visited.
I explain all this because Hyder and Stewart are in the news again. When we went there, you could wave at the border patrol station and go between the two towns. People went back and forth at will. Both Hyder and Stewart are small. Hyder's population is under 100, and Stewart's is 400. There got to be so few children in Hyder that the local elementary school closed. The elementary-aged kids started crossing the border and going to the school in Stewart.
As you might have thought, border crossing has become problematic in the age of covid-19, but it's not the US causing a problem. Canada closed its border with the US, and that includes the border between Hyder and Stewart. One person from each family in Hyder may cross into Stewart for three hours once each week to obtain needed supplies, meaning that the kids can't go to school. Stewart has asked the federal government for an exception given that exceptions have been added to a couple other towns in similar situations. So far, no exception has been granted to Stewart. The residents of Stewart may cross into Hyder with no problem; however, they must quarantine for two weeks when they cross back into Stewart.
And we're worried here about in-person vs. hybrid vs. all virtual school. At least the kids here have a school they can get to. The city schools here may move to hybrid early in October rather than wait until the end of the nine-week grading period in early November. It's not clear yet how parents and teachers feel about this. For those for whom all virtual is working well, it may not be a big decision. For people paying for a program in which their kids are monitored and connected to complete their virtual learning, it might be different, especially if they're paying for multiple kids. Some of the programs I saw mentioned were in the neighborhood of $300 per week for each child. That adds up fast.
It's becoming pretty clear that HWSNBN will get whoever he wants named to the Supreme Court. Mitt Romney and a senator from Colorado were seen as the most likely to join Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski in not supporting a decision made by anyone other than the winner of the November election. There were two op-ed pieces in today's Washington Post proposing a term limit of 18 years on justices. The justice could be re-appointed, but the proposal does away with automatic lifetime appointments. What is so scary about appointments now is that they are until death do us part. Academic tenure is one thing; lifetime appointment, another.
The local university just put up their new covid-19 numbers. They do not look that bad. The concerning thing, though, is that I don't think they've added the positive cases found in the testing done by the athletics department. And if they are leaving those out, what else might be missing. I need to do some digging and find out what the policy is for students who test positive on an outside-the-university test. Are they expected or even required to report that result to the university? This inquiring mind wants to know.
My cell phone just sent me a notification about the CDC's warning to parents about traditional Halloween activities. They warn parents not to let their kids go trick-or-treating door-to-door. They also advise not attending crowded indoor costume parties. Some localities have already banned trick-or-treating. When Los Angeles tried to do so, though, public outcry prompted them to reinstate it but encourage parents not to allow it. In skimming the article, I saw no mention of what some churches do here, trunk-or-treating car-to-car in a parking lot. That would have the advantage of being outdoors. I will likely have some candy on hand in case the few kids here come knocking as they did last year. All in all, though, another reason to be glad our kids are adults ... even if they don't always act like them.
No comments:
Post a Comment