Homeschooling – RIP & other news
Proving there is a God after all, this week, the New York Dept of education allowed students back into school five days a week for the first time since the middle of March 2020. A full thirteen months after NYC initially shut down. It couldn’t have come soon enough. Both for me and my little fella. The hooting, hollering and sibling fighting were a tad distracting for a dad, barricaded in a room, trying to get work done. “Taking a nap” become a euphemism for locking our bedroom door and taking calls & doing research in peace. When the kids grow up and look back on this pandemic, they’ll probably think dad slept a lot.
As for my six year old. I’ve never seen a kid look so happy to be going back to school. He practically levitated at the thought of getting on the school bus. I should have captured the moment so I could show him when his teenage self won’t get out of bed. He’d clearly missed interacting with his classmates. And now he has the chance for a more interactive education that doesn’t reside over Zoom.
But I’m somewhat surprised to find I miss him these first few days. As the city marches toward something close to normal, I realize that, all this time we have had these past thirteen months together – were at an end. I wonder if we’ll ever have this much time together again? My lack of foresight meant I should have enjoyed the moments more. This pandemic has an expiration date.
Speaking of which, I’m now happy & lucky enough to say the Mrs & I are both fully vaccinated. It’s a liberating moment. I won’t be dying this year (of COVID anyway). I will likely not be sick. I can go running without a mask. I can eat inside a restaurant. I can go to a movie. I won’t be a social pariah. It appears we maybe able to go maskless outside soon as well. And best news of all – having been stuck in Manhattan the last 13 months- I can now safely fly. Europe here I come!
Meanwhile, according to Johns Hopkins, there are 32,126,026 confirmed cases and 572,702 deaths in the USA. 3,123,464 deaths worldwide. We are not quite there yet, but vaccines and herd immunity will do the trick.
