Welcome to Our World

 Willow Eleanor.....

Her story is not mine to tell...

Her pictures are not mine to share...

But her entrance in to this world needs a space on my blog...because her family has occupied a space in my heart for 25 years. 

Willow...you are already so loved!  

Universal

 Universal Studios - unfortunately, it's become a thing of the past for us.  For the time being, I am not an employee so I can longer get in for free. Co-vid restrictions made it difficult to get summer hours and we really have not been in any hurry to expose ourselves to hoards of people if not necessary. 

The cancellation of Halloween Horror Nights was a huge disappointment for us, but honestly, without my employee park entrance I probably wouldn't have been able to go anyway. I am hoping by next summer, things will be back to somewhat normal and I can start working again. 

CJ has a premier annual pass so still goes occasionally. On one of his visits he discovered that, before the Halloween event was cancelled,  two houses had already been completed so Universal decided to open these houses for public walk-through. Needless to say, this was an exciting development!!!!  

On the Friday of an incredibly stressful school week (this has been a difficult year so far in general...maybe I'll post about it later), CJ invited me to use one of his complimentary passes and we both released our teaching stress at the park!  

We arrived about 1 and were able to get an unbelievable deal on an express pass, which my son graciously paid for, and it turned out to be such a blessing because we got so much accomplished in the almost 4 hours we were there. 

Since we couldn't use the express pass until 2, we went to see the new Bourne Stuntacular - which I thought was pretty good. We then made our way around the park going on ET, Woody Woodpecker's Coaster, Simpsons, Men In Black (yes, I still suck at it and CJ is as good as ever), and Transformers.  

Then we went through the two houses (went through Bride of Frankenstein twice) before leaving. 

We ended our day by getting together and watching Beetlejuice! 

I have to say, I felt very safe there. The physical distancing markers were very clear and as a whole, people were really good at following them. The only problem we had was with the family behind us in line for the Bourne show. For the show, they left three seats empty between parties and only filled every other row. After the show you had to remain seated and were dismissed by row.  Every party was given their own ride vehicle and hand sanitizer was given out before every ride. 

I even felt safe going through the houses which gives me hope that even if we're unfortunate enough to be going through this pandemic next year, somehow they should be able to still have HHN. 

Aaaaand Lightning Strikes.....aka Redemption

Remember this post from last year?

Big Storm Brewing?

And then......

It Just Sprinkled

The Lightning, after setting the record for the most wins in a season went on to be swept in the first round of the play-offs.  

The past five years have been very difficult for the Lightning

2015 - Stanley Cup Finals

Opponent: Chicago Blackhawks

After leading two games to one, the Lightning failed to win another game and scored only 2 goals in the final three games.

2016 Eastern Conference Finals

Opponent Pittsburgh Penguins

Lightning again collapsed scoring only 3 goals in the final 2 games. 

2017

Decimated by injuries, they failed to even make the playoffs

2018 Eastern Conference Finals

Opponent: Washington Capitals

Up three games to two, the Lightning scored 0 goals in the final two games. 

2019 First Round Playoffs

Opponent: Columbus Blue Jackets

After scoring 3 goals in the first period of the first game, it was all downhill from there. They managed only 5 goals in the final 3 games. 

So, yes, Lightning fans are used to the crash and burn scenarios that made the Lightning a meme on the internet 

but 

NOT THIS YEAR!

Round One 

Opponent: Columbus Blue Jackets

Game one featured 6 overtimes before the Lightning finally scored.  I was still at work when the game started at 3:00 and I was in bed when it finally ended. The Lightning then won 3 of the next four games to win the series in 5 games. 

Round Two

Opponent: Boston Bruins

They lost game one but then won four in a row to take the series in 5.

Round Three

Opponent: New York Islanders

They won in 6 games...game six featuring an overtime winning goal by Cirelli. 

Round Four

Opponent: Dallas Stars

After losing game one by a large margin, they picked themselves up and won three of the next four games (and the loss was a goal scored in double overtime)! 

Finally STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS

Hedman's Hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice to have the monkey off our backs.

The Elephant in the Room

I tend to be a bit skeptical. I believe that things are rarely all one side or the other and that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 

This has been especially true with the Co-vid pandemic. In a time where everyone is looking at the "numbers", whether it be positivity rate number of cases, number of deaths, or number of hospitalizations, and in a time where everyone has their own political agenda, it's hard to determine what is really the truth. 

But through all the conjecture, one thing seems certain. The United States has turned this pandemic into a political side-show. Republicans are resolute in their belief that this entire thing is a hoax and has been entirely blown out of proportion by the media to make Trump look bad in a re-election year. My dearest republican friends believe that there is a cure for co-vid out there that doctors are ignoring. It's both alarming and ludicrous that they believe that doctors are letting thousands of Americans die because they are in an alliance to ruin Trump.

As the Republican National Convention wrapped up its four-day run, Trump delivered a 71-minute speech that largely delivered a version of reality that HE wants America to see rather the a version that most Americans are living. He declared  the "China Virus" a thing of the past even as 1,000 people a day continue to die from it and 40,000 people in the United States are being diagnosed every day - which is enough to be 2nd in the world behind India.  In fact, Florida has more daily cases than most countries in the world. 

Which is a great Segway into my next topic - the state of the state of Florida. As I stated at the beginning, I rarely look at 'numbers as being completely accurate. Just one month ago, the numbers had Florida reporting 10,000+ cases daily. Now that the collecting and reporting of data has been stripped of the CDC and given to the White House, our numbers have miraculously dropped to about 3,000 a day.  I don't believe either one. I believe the CDC mishandled and over-reported data and I believe the White House is manipulating numbers and under-reporting. All that to say, I think we are still hovering somewhere around 5-6,000 new cases a day.  To put that into perspective, that is more than the cases of the following entire COUNTRIES!

1). Austria (181)

2. Canada (315)

3. Germany (785)

4. Australia (123) Interesting to note that at the beginning of the month, the state of Victoria experienced a surge and the numbers went up to about 700. The state issued another lock-down, students returned to distance learning, and just like that... down to 123. 

5. Greece (251)

6. Italy (1,365)

7. Finland (7)

8. Norway (51)

9. Russia (3,711)

10. Japan (850)

11. Hong Kong (15)

12. Hungary (158)

13. Sweden (134)

14. Ireland (142)

15.South Korea (299)

16. New Zealand (2)

17. Egypt (223)

18. Indonesia (2, 858)

19. Georgia - the country (7)

20. The United Kingdom (1,108)

I could list many more, but you get the idea. 

The latest from the United States reports 44, 269 new cases. Despite not conquering the virus, the president announced that school should resume face-to-face instruction so that parents can go back to work and our economy can return to normal. Our lovely governor, who hopes to attain a post with Trump if he is re-elected, jumped all over that and he, along with the Commissioner of Education, Richard Cochran issued a mandate that all schools must return to "brick and mortar" instruction 5 days a week or risk losing funding. The mandate is stated as such "all school boards must return to 5 day a week face-to-face instruction unless they have a recommendation from the local board of health ---wonderful ---except that the governor turned around and told the local health agencies that they were not to give their approval. And because they have government jobs and cannot afford to lose them, they did as they were told. In one county with a severe outbreak, school board members went as far as to seek the advice of 6 doctors - ALL who went on record to say school doors should not open under the current conditions. Surprisingly (not) the local health director would not give his approval. Despite the lack of approval, the board decided to follow the advice of the doctors and begin the first 4 weeks with distance learning. They were immediately visited by DeSantis and Cochran who told them they MUST open the school doors or risk losing 20 million dollars in funding. The board had no choice but to reverse their decision. 

Thankfully, the state teachers association hired lawyers and sued the governor and commissioner and sought to block the mandate. The matter of the lawsuit was three fold...

1). It declared the mandate arbitrary and capricious in nature - basically stated, it was a serious abuse of power 

2. The state constitution says the power of opening or closing schools lie with school boards - NOT with commissioner and governor.

3). The mandate did not provide any parameters of safety meaning it does not fit the requirement of giving the students a safe environment

After a week-long hearing, the judge sided with the teacher's union declaring the mandate unconstitutional and gave power to open and close schools to local  school boards WITHOUT the threat of funding loss. An appeal is pending. 

I'm confidant the appeal will not succeed, but it is too late for school boards to close now.  However, at least they NOW have the power to close if it comes to that. 

We've been back to school for one week now and the results have been mixed. Surprisingly, the kids do keep their masks on all day. However, there is no way to social distance during recess and bathroom breaks. At first, I thought I would just let the kids use the bathroom individually throughout the day when they ask. Yep ---that didn't work out too well as my classroom was a revolving door all day long. So we are doing the class bathroom break thing. 

I have less anxiety though as I have had to adopt the attitude of assumption of risk. I do my best to follow the distancing rule but parents have to understand there is a certain assumption of risk sending their child to in person learning. 

I see a return to distance learning in the future. I could be wrong - we'll see. 

All the Things

School starts Monday (for teachers) and to say I have mixed feelings about this would be a huge understatement. I love teaching! I love staying busy! I love knowing what I'm doing makes a difference! Any ordinary year would see me anxious to begin another school year. 

This year, however, I am anxious in a different way. I have so many feelings about this it's hard for me to put words into any kind of eloquent manner. At the end of June, the Education Commissioner of Florida, Richard Corcoran, issued a proclamation stating all schools must open in brick and mortar 5 days a week. At the time, this was not a big deal. However, since that time, Florida has become the corona virus capital of the world averaging around 10,000 new cases a day and yet our governor refuses to back down at all!  Parents have a choice of face to face or digital and so far, it seems split down the middle so that should help to hold class sizes down, but I cannot help but think this is not going end well!  I sure hope to God I am wrong, but I foresee many teachers and children contracting Co-Vid 19 with deaths of some involved. I just don't see how you can put a group of people in a closed room (we are not allowed to open doors and windows for safety reasons) with central air conditioning circulating the same air from one room to another for 7 straight hours without some virus transfer. So this year, most of my feelings are fear and anger. 

I've have enjoyed my extended time off much more than I thought I would. Zack and I get along very well so being in each others company nearly 24/7 for four-and-a-half months was not a problem. Here are some of the things I have enjoyed doing while enjoying this time off.....

- family game nights ---by far this was my favorite thing to do and I am so glad that C.J. thought of it. Normally, we try to go to Universal one day a week in the summer. Since that was not going to happen this year, C.J. came up with the idea of game night. We would play everything from Sorry, Life, Yahtzee, Sequence, and cribbage. 

- sleeping in--- the only part of my job I hate is getting up in the morning. I am a night owl so rolling out of bed at 6:30 in the morning is the worst part of my day. I have become acclimated to sleeping the hours of midnight to 9:30 or 10:00 so the morning alarm is going to be difficult. 

- 9:00 walks ---I took Ollie for a walk every night around 9:00 (unless we were gone or it was raining). 

- reading outside---most days (unless I was tutoring) I would take Ollie out first thing in the morning and then sit outside with him and read. Usually we could get about a half hour in before the heat and sun got to be too much and we had to go in. 

- Friday night dinner and shopping --- Fridays were usually our days to stock up on food for the week. Then, we would order food for curbside pick-up (usually Chilis) and head home to eat. Very rarely during the school year do I do a full week grocery shopping. I am more of a 'I'll pick it on the way home' kind of person. I think my life could be a lot easier doing a big shop once a week so I am going to try and continue that. 

- Drive-in ---Unfortunately we discovered this too late to take full advantage of it over the summer, but we did get there three times in July. We saw Lost Boys, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Ghostbusters. Being at the drive-in is so nostalgic for me. When I was little, my dad would make popcorn, put it in a brown paper bag, we would pack a cooler of kool-aid, and head to the drive-in. Funny thing is, my sister and I rarely even watched the movie. We would usually fall asleep before the movie even started, but it was still a fun memory. 

- American Horror Story and Dexter --- with all the time on my hands I re-watched Seasons one, two, and four of American Horror Story and Seasons 1 and 4 of Dexter. 

Even though we will be heading back to school, my feeling is that it will not last long. I predict we go all virtual within the first month. Again, I could be wrong, and I pray to God that I am.  

On Saturday we celebrated CJ's birthday and had an amazing evening!  


We started with dinner at Bahama Breeze

With the co-vid numbers soaring here in Florida, we were lucky to be able to eat outside. 

After dinner we did something that I have been wanting to do for quite a while now.

We drove down to the Silver Moon Drive-in Theater in Lakeland 

The movie playing was Lost Boys followed by Nightmare on Elm Street.  We were unable to stay for the second feature but will be paying another visit to the drive-in this week to see it (as they have reversed the order of the movies). 

I had an amazing time and I think it's safe to say that the birthday boy enjoyed his birthday.  

Game Night

We knew going into this summer that it would be completely different and our normal routines of Universal evenings and movie going would not be possible. 

We still wanted to stay connected and make the most of our summer vacation so CJ came up with an alternative - game nights. 

Once a week we head over to CJ's house and spend a couple hours playing various games.  We usually play cribbage every time; other games we enjoy playing are Sorry, Sequence, Yahtzee, and Life. Well....I am not sure how much Jon enjoys playing Yahtzee since he has never won (not even close).  He's had some pretty bad luck with that game. However, Jon and Zack have won every cribbage game so far so that kind of makes up for it!  To make it worse, CJ and I were on the brink of winning one game but then, between the two of us, we had 6 points in our hand while at the same time Jon and Zack had 26 points in their hands (and the crib).  Yeah, that was fun!!!!!  

Always being safe, we have the Clorox wipes on the table. 

Looking forward to more game nights in the future.