Bfth's Boring Blog

  How strange was your Thanksgiving this year?  Let me say straight out that I hope it WAS strange and more importantly SAFE.  This year Thanksgiving didn't really feel like Thanksgiving.  However in the year of Covid-19 that's how it SHOULD be.  It's a year where traditions should be broken for safety sake and maybe new traditions should begin. In my eyes, Thanksgiving started yesterday afternoon.  "School" was over and work ended a little early (though I never can shut down when I'm technically supposed to.)  I had spent a time the day before making a pumpkin bread with maple cream cheese filling (supposed to be vegan, but I used regular cream cheese).  Normally this would have been served at my holiday table, but since the table was just going to be three of us this year, I sliced it up and put it in containers to share.  My one aunt was going to be in the area, so she dropped by for a brief outdoor visit (even though it was warmish it loo...

 Its two days before Thanksgiving.  Last night we got the call...the high school is closed again.  This time until December 7th.  It's a two week quarantine as there is another positive case.  (If you'll recall they closed down last week for a day:   https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/ 2020/11/why-i-am-losing-my-mind.html  and the football team had to quarantine for 14 days.)  I expected this to happen AFTER Thanksgiving and not before but... We are living in uneasy times.  Although I try to follow guidelines, I have no idea if what I'm doing is right or wrong.  However, I do KNOW that I am not perfect and my son has gone out with friends; a small group outside and then his girlfriend pretty much daily.  (I'm pretty sure there is no social distancing or safety there.)  As exciting as it is to hear about vaccines, we "regular" folks are a long way away from that.  Yesterday, as I drove to a local grocery store (don't...

  New Testament Reading:  Matthew 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 25:32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 25:33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.  25:34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;  25:35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 25:36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' 25:37 Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?  25:38 And when was it tha...

 Today marks my son's 4th in person school day.  Yesterday it looked like we might have to return to all remote.  (The high school was all remote yesterday due to an unknown individual testing positive for Covid-19.)  However, the school was cleaned, the appropriate group quarantined (I hope) and today was back to physical school for my son's group. Before any student is allowed into the building, they need to have their temperature taken and a form has to be filled out by a parent and submitted online.  Guess who forgot to do this today?  Yes, day 4 and I forgot to fill it out.  So my son calls me and I rush upstairs to the computer and submit it as quickly as possible.  Not a big deal...but I feel awful about forgetting it. I also hate when people make excuses, but that's exactly what I'm going to do right here and right now.  So follow my path of crazy and see why I might have forgotten the form this morning. Let me start off by sayi...

 Every year, the day after Halloween, my husband take the screens out of our storm doors and replaces them with glass.  It may get cold before Halloween, but we don't taken them out before because the one year we did (quite a while ago), a super strong Spiderman came looking for some candy and pounded on the glass, cracking it.  (Not breaking it...Spiderman was not injured and DID get candy.)  Even though we knew kids would not be knocking this year (we left the candy outside on a platter), we still kept the screen in until November 1st. Instead of putting them away in storage (like we usually do), this year we needed to take them in for repair.  One screen had a tear (that I had patched), the other was detaching from the frame and the two other small ones were fine.  We decided to take all 4 in to be rescreened so that they would all be good to go next spring. Unfortunately, the local place (which was within walking distance) where we had always t...

 Mondays are usually one of the craziest days of the week for me.  I'm sure it's that way for many of us.  Since I've been working from home since March, I often start my work day early.  Depending on how things are going, I might turn on my laptop and start poking around before 7 am.  But usually I try to hold off until at least after 8 and the CBS This Morning has a lot to do with that. I watched CBS This Morning pretty much from it's beginning; as the show debuted in late 1987 and that fall I had to get up "early" for an college internship.  I was (and still am) particularly fond of Harry Smith and Mark McEwan. (Interestingly enough it turns out Mark McEwan is a friend of one of my friends...small world!)  But I wasn't a dedicated morning news watcher at the time.  My television wasn't necessarily on every weekday at 7 AM to CBS.  But I liked the show which faded away to become The Early Show and then eventually was revised/restored the...

  You may recall my post on Monday about the first day of school .  Yes, I was nervous and I still am as today is the 2nd day of school...sort of. This is how it works for the majority of the students in our high school.  (Like everything there are some exceptions which I won't bore you with.)  All students who elected to return to physical school via the hybrid mode are either in group A, B or C.  My son is an A.  So he physically went to the school (for the first time since March) on Monday.  On Monday he had four 60 minute classes (what would normally be periods 1-4) starting at 8:30 and ending at 12:45.  (There was a 5 minute break between each classes.)  The afternoons are when teachers have virtual office hours and are available for help.  (I'm not exactly sure how that works as we haven't used it yet.)  "After school activities" (aka clubs) usually meet (virtually) around 3.  (More on that later.)  Tuesday he attend...

 Here we are in November and today is my son's first day at school.  Of course he's been going remotely since March of this year, but this is the first day since March 13th that he's actually physically been in the high school.  The day is only 5 hours long (arriving a half an hour prior to the actual start of class) with only 4 classes per day.  It is the first day since March that the teachers (in the high school) will actually be teaching to students in a classroom.  (Until last week the high school teachers had been teaching from home.  Last week they were in the classroom, but there were no students.) If you are of a certain age  (like me), you'll remember The Partridge Family .  If you remember the show, you'll remember the bus.  (If even you don't know the show, maybe you know the bus...it was pretty unforgetting.)  And you probably know where I am going with this.  Written on the back of the bus was...well, I'm not going to ...

 I didn't get much sleep last night which might make this post more rambling than usual.  I'm not even going to try to explain why the following bits of songs have been pinging around in my brain, but I will say that things DO get twisted and tangled up in the gray matter.  Somehow it all makes sense to me.  I don't know if it will to you, but...   So here's what's on the playlist in my brain this morning...First up this snippet from the brilliant musical,  1776 ; lyrics (and music if you know it) by Peter Stone.   "But don't forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor. And that is why they will follow us!   "To the right, ever to the right  Never to the left, forever to the right.   Where there's gold A market that will hold Tradition that is old Reluctant to be bold I sing Hosanna, Hosanna In a sane and lucid manner! We are ...

  I can't say on this day four years ago, because it wasn't this exact date.  I couldn't remember the date (I went back in my calendar to find it: Nov 8), but I DO remember the day quite well.  I even wrote this:   https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/i-hope-you-vote.html .  (See even back then I was encouraging people to vote.)  I wasn't happy with either candidate (or party).  At that time I was still affiliated with a party that no longer meshed with my views and opinions.  However, it wouldn't be until the following year that I officially became UNAFFLIATED because NEITHER party appealed to me.  (They still don't).  At that time, I was determined to vote with my conscious and heart.  To this day, I will not allow a party to define who I am or how I will vote. I remember the day quite well NOT because it was Election Day, but because it was the beginning of a 2 day conference/meeting for the company I had just starte...

  I'm guessing that most of you who read this blog are residents of the United States of America.  (Although I don't feel like we're very united right now.)  If you are not, my apologies, this post doesn't really apply to you, but feel free to continue to read.  Tomorrow is Election Day.  (You probably know this even if you are NOT an American.  There's been way too much news and even I've done more than my regular share of blogging about it:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2020/10/voting-making-it-great.html and https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2020/10/october-30-2020-random-and-mischievous.html)  Of course, this being a highly unusual year, I'm not doing my usual "thing;" meaning that I will not be at my usual polling place before the sun rises.  I have already cast my ballot and placed it in a secure ballot box in town.  It was easy; it was safe.  Sadly, I've heard that this is NOT the case everywhere in the coun...