Blog

  • The Perils of the Upcoming New Normal

    I referred yesterday to the fact that the NYC DOE released the 2021/2022 school schedule, which begins on September 13th, and also includes no snow days, but states all classes will be in person. One way or another, kids will be back in school in September.

    This is a huge step for us, as with the kid back in school, that will give me an opportunity to find a job. A job means the ability to make some progress from the situation we are in, because as it stands now, our condition hasn’t changed since May 2020. That was when I was laid off, and we went into the financial lockdown we are still existing in. Freedom from that is a dream come true.

    And yet, school starting up again will mean an end to my daily existence with the kid. It has been madding, and trying, and difficult, and I am sure that there has been some psychological damage on everyone’s part… But…

    The last time I spent this much uninterrupted time with my daughter was the first month that she was born. I had a month of paternity leave, and the three of us hunkered down together learning how to be a family. And then, I went back to work. With the exception of a day here and there, or maybe a week vacation, I have been working, or she has been in some sort of daycare or school.

    Come that early fall day of September 13th, when I walk her to school for that first day, it will conclude one year and six months of father-daughter bonding. I didn’t know how I would survive it, but now, I am a little sad to see it go.

  • 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.