Blog

  • Post Covid-19 World; Death to Snow Days

    I have to admit that Covid-19 has changed the way America works, and thinks. Remote working has changed employment and where people can live to be employed. The pandemic has ushered in a different attitude towards universal healthcare. I also think that we all now know what, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or one,” truly means in practice. And as long as we are on a Spock kick, I will also quote him by saying, “Change is the essential process of all existence.”

    In that vein, we got the new NYC school calendar for 2021-2022. As I was skimming over it, looking at the dates of holidays and in-service, I saw this little addition:

    “On ‘Snow Days’ or days when school buildings are closed due to an emergency, all students and families should plan on participating in remote learning.”

    Yup, it’s official; SNOW DAYS are DEAD! Long Live Snow Days!

    I kidded about the death of snows days this past winter, as no matter how much it snowed, there were still remote classes. But now, the death of snow days is official policy. Never again will kids watch the news in the morning to see if enough snow fell to cancel school. No more will children know the joy of missing school to play in the snow! Gone now is the last hope of a child to avoid a test, praying that God will drop a foot of snow in one night.

    We have entered a new world.

  • Vax Fail, No Herd Immunity

    I woke up and read this story in the NY Times, which is reporting now that most experts believe that “herd immunity” will not be achieved in America. As the Times reports, a few factors come into play, such as a segment of the population’s reluctance to get vaccinated, and the fact that the percentage needed for herd immunity keeps going up as more variants spread. The end result might be that we will “live” with Covid-19 as a manageable disease.

    Well, this sucks to find out, but I sort of always knew this to be true.

    And I will say I knew this because that 30% of the population that won’t get the vaccine has been around for years, and now they are screwing it up for the rest of us. I know that 30% is made of people who don’t trust science, don’t trust the government, don’t trust drug companies, and also think this whole covid-19 virus is a big lie. Yup, thanks guy. Some of these people are Trumpers, but I also know that some of that 30% is made up of college educated people who still think vaccines cause disease. (I listened to an old high school friends podcast, where they still brought up how autism is caused by vaccines, ignoring the many studies that disprove that notion, and that governments around the world are covering it up. Then they added that climate change is real because, you know, science. Circle that square…)

    But I guess what really bothers me is that in the past, and I understand it did take some time, but polio were eradicated by the American public that was willing to get vaccinated. In that America, everyone was willing to do their part to help everyone. Yes, in that America.

  • Edited Graduation Letter

    I have a niece that is about the graduate from high school, and I was drafting a letter as part of our congratulations to her. I cut a joke out of the letter, as I don’t think it fits with the rest of the letters tone.

    But, I’m not one to waste material…

    “But, you’ll be away to college soon enough, and I won’t bore you with advice of what to do, or expect.

    Okay, maybe just one piece of advice that I have been sitting on. Follow your passion, even if it changes over time, and though it might not always work out the way you think, you will meet the most important people of your life on that journey.

    That was rather more serious than I wanted, and I might have lifted that from Power of Myth, or Spock from Star Trek; I’ll go a little lighter from here on out.”

  • Sounds of New York

    There is a guy singing in the construction site behind our building. At least, I think he’s singing. It’s more like a deep belly “Huh!” followed by several other “huh’s.” With the construction site being a hollow cement post and lintel structure, that has yet to be filled in with walls, or pipes, or anything, so it just behaves like a big echo chamber. Every sound, hammer pounding, yell, or really terrible idea of signing, is just amplified in the neighborhood.

    When we were staying up at our friend’s house for the weekend, we slept with the windows open. Now, the house was not in the country, though it was a small town, but in a small neighborhood subdivision. Yet, for an occasional car passing by, it was very quiet out there. Nothing happening, just the sound of still.

    Last night, back in New York, we slept with the windows open. I woke up around 4am, and as I lay in bed, trying to fall back to sleep, I listened to the City. It was a quiet night, no weird honking sounds, or sirens going by, but there is a hum to the City. It’s like a white noise hum. I couldn’t place my finger on it, but it was there, just a very low humming; like a machine running automatically.

  • No More Late Night Snacks

    Spring is here and Summer isn’t too far away. The seasons of rebirth and change is upon us. I think I have mentioned that I have put on twenty pounds of the course of the pandemic, and before that, I had put on a stress ten pounds from my former shitty job situation, my mother’s death, and moving away and then back to NYC. Food was the only thing giving me any comfort, and ice cream was my best friend. So, I’m front loaded now; just completing my slow transformation to middle aged white male – balding with a belly. As you can read, I’m not too happy about this.

    I am trying to wrap my head around getting back to a healthy lifestyle, as I don’t think I have really ever had a healthy lifestyle. I just sort of lived, and it all took care of itself. Well… those days are over, and I have to move this to the forefront of my thinking. This week, I am starting small; no more snacking after 9pm. This might be low hanging fruit, so to speak, but I think it is the lynchpin of the issues I am having. Mainly, no discipline. I want to see if I can go a week without snacking, controlling my behavior. If I can do this, then I think I can move on to more complicated things.

    And the complicated things are; running, maybe daily; eating better, or at least what we all can agree on as a family; and the really ambitious one, hiking.

    But before I can get there, I have to say goodbye to my 11pm ice cream break.