The Insanity of Rain


Wednesday, May 5th was the first day of school ...again.  It was the first day of school where there would be school every day for a full (ish) day. (It was actually my son's girlfriend's first FULL day of high school...she's a freshman had never spent the whole day in the school building.)  What does that really mean?  It means that my son will be going to school in person every day.  Starting at 8:15 Monday, Wednesday and Friday (7:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when he has choir, which is going to be KILLER) he will have four classes.  Then there will be a break from 11:50 to 1:10 for lunch.  

Lunch cannot be eaten IN school.  Students must go out to a designated area outside to eat.  But that doesn't work when it rains.  When it rains, students need to leave the campus and (it is assumed) go home.  In the past, if it rained for lunch everyone went home and the rest of the day (two additional classes from 1:10 to 2:50) was completely remotely.  However, starting on the 5th, in the event of rain, students can leave for lunch and then return for the afternoon classes.

So it figures that on this first day of school, it rained.  What made this more complicated is that on Monday, Wednesday and Friday he has choir during part of the lunch period.  From 11:50 (ish) to 12:15 (ish) he has choir.  It still leaves him plenty of time for lunch...or does it?

For the first day I wasn't sure what he was going to do or how long choir would go.  So I waited.  At 12:15 he texted saying:  "Can you give me a ride home then drive me back.  Because I can't stay here.  And it's pouring."  So off I went.

We live in a small town, but at 12:15 the elementary schools and middle schools are letting out.  (The school start and end times are slightly staggered.)  So there were a lot of kids crossing with crossing guards at various intersections (at least three that I can recall.)  At one intersection there must have been a group of a dozen crossing; so I sat there with my turn signal on as one group crossed, then another ran up and then another followed.  When I finally made the turn I got stuck behind an Amazon truck that was making multiple deliveries on the same block.  (Nothing again Amazon!  What would we do without them?)  It wasn't that the truck was stopping, but that there were cars parked on either side of the block so trying to get around it was like playing bob and weave as I tried to avoid a variety of cars.

Then I got stuck at a traffic light where everyone (except me) was trying to make a left turn.  Sigh!

I didn't get to the high school (which is less than 2 miles away) until nearly 12:30!  Then it was turn around and head back home.

The drive home was a little faster.  (Although the Amazon truck was still on the same street as before...silly me I thought it would have finished!)  He ran into the house, pulled out his lunch (which I am sad to say was sort of squashed...my bad) and gulped it down.  Then he had maybe 15 minutes before I loaded him back into the car.  (Insisting that he carry an umbrella for the drive home.)

The drive back to the high school was much faster since most of the students were NOT returning for the afternoon session (Or so it seemed to me.) Or maybe it was that I finally was missing the delivery trucks.

Finally to do all this, I had to reschedule a phone call for later in the afternoon and move a morning one along quickly so that I would have time to get him.  What would I have done if I were working in an office or if I just wasn't available?

There's got to be a better answer.  I'm sure the team behind the school schedule is working on it.  It has been a crazy year...and here's hoping that by the next school year our students will be able to physically be in school and STAY there; no matter what the weather.


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