Not My Cats

This is my front porch. These are not my cats. They look pretty comfortable. These two were born under my back porch, right before I moved into my house several years ago. The next door neighbor wanted to keep them as outdoor cats to keep the mice and moles at bay. Well, a few months ago, the neighbor got two dogs….barking dogs. Now the cats spend more time at my house. I hope they get more mice at my house! I am pretty sure that our yard mole has now moved to the neighbor’s yard!

We had our first snow of January this week! School was cancelled for Friday, which is always a perfect day for snow! Families enjoyed some much needed down time. It has been a really challenging time for our school families. The kids are in school for a little while, then home for a while. There are work packets for some, online classes for some, and independent online work for some. Kids are stressed without the stability they need. Some families have managed to navigate all this, but many have not.

As a pre-covid homeschooler and public educator, I feel much empathy for our families. It takes a good year to really settle into a homeschooling lifestyle. Even then, homeschooling in non-pandemic times, includes a lot of field trips, lessons, and groups. Parents can always find support. In covid schooling, the support is hard to find. The days can run together, and parents can be overwhelmed trying to fill multiple roles.

In our county, students have not been back to school in person since getting out for holiday break. The students are doing remote learning. The covid numbers have not decreased from the level of high community spread. People here, for the most part, did not heed the warnings for the holidays.

The covid vaccine distribution is not going well here. This was the line on the first day it was offered to people ages 75 and up, and people who worked in the medical field. They ran out of vaccine in two hours. The elderly people who were standing in line, in the cold, were turned away. I heard one of the facilitators tell some of the elderly that it was like a birthday party….you had to get there early if you wanted to be sure they didn’t run out of ice cream. I was so upset at this, but went on about my business. My mom was with me. I had brought her to the line for the second time that day, to see if the line had gone down. Our health department should not have invited everyone to the party if they didn’t have enough “ice cream”! It is now hit and miss guessing if a call will even go through to schedule an appointment, or if there will even be vaccine available! Teachers have now been moved down the line for vaccine. I will be surprised if it is available for teachers anytime before summer.

We just keep hanging in there….doing our best to stay safe!

~AoA