Nick's High School Experience So Far

Nick is "back" in school. 

As of this writing, it has been one year since the children went home. 

He has been in physical class on campus six times since they started rotating kids back in class over five weeks ago.

"I didn't think it was possible, but COVID school is worse than COVID remote learning."

He is quiet all day.  All. day.  

There are five kids maybe in his classes.

Two of his teachers don't teach in the school. 

He sits and does remote learning while sitting in the classroom, in a mask, not talking, no interaction.

So far in high school, he has 56 class absences. 

He didn't go to class, didn't turn in attendance, missed roll call, whatever the reason. 

He has a 4.0 High School GPA, 4.25 when weighted for his Honors classes. 

So, in addition to being the lunch lady, principal, janitor, driver's ed teacher, teacher, parent, counselor, and extracurricular manager, I have now failed at being truancy officer. However, it is really tough to actually care at this point, when no grades are affected for absence.  

My favorite teacher to student, complete opposite comment from what Ben received, both being entirely inappropriate: the kids are "lazy" for wanting to go back to school because they just want the teachers to do everything for them.

Driver's Ed update: After being told they would finish their November class with the driving portion in February, we received an abrupt text message in March that the driving school is backed up and still doing the driving portion for the kids who took the class in June 2020.  

So, just one more thing we'll do ourselves and out of step.

I'm exhausted.

 

First Day of High School Ben

Not normal at all. 

Seven months into his first year of high school, he went to school after 11 months out of school and in his bedroom.

The first two days of his week in school were from home because one was a teacher conference day that I had no idea about and the other was a teacher work day during which they apparently don't work.  *see below.  His fourth day of the week back was canceled due to ice, that wasn't.  

After the county told us his bus would be here after it would actually be here so he missed it, I drove him in. 

He wasn't allowed out of the car until he passed a medical questionnaire. 

He attended remote classes from within his classes from his own computer that he brought from home. Most of his teachers weren't there.

One class had two students in it, including him. The teachers have said out loud they hope the kids don't show up. 

His social studies teacher was there and asked him in class: "Ben, have I ever seen you?"  Turns out the answer is no, because he was attending a different social studies class the entire semester.  No one ever reached out.  At all. And he had no way of knowing because neither of the two social studies teachers have graded any work the entire semester so grades wouldn't indicate anything was wrong, and the teacher in the class he had been attending just ignored that he was there.

The kids were told in one class that they were essentially stupid for wanting to come to school because they could be home sleeping in and not working.

A school board member has tweeted publicly that it is just white kid's families that want to go back to school, indicating what, I'm not entirely sure.

We paid for and he took the classroom portion of Driver's Ed in November before turning 15; to date, he can't finish the class, get a permit, or learn to drive because they haven't scheduled the behind the wheel portion of the class.  When I asked recently when that would happen for either of my boys? Here is the cut and paste of the entire sentence fragment + one complete sentence response: "Once they are assigned to a driver.  The driver will contact you."

 Week one of return: two days completing remote school in school, three days off.  And, he had the life lesson that the adults have all checked out hammered home.

 

Out Of Place

Behind this door is where we keep the cleaning stuff. 

You would think for as often as I find this door just hanging open, my house was the cleanest ever made.  But, I think instead they just come by here and open the door to drive me mad. 

And, no wonder I can never find any tape around here. 

Also out of place, Army tech departments to fix computer batteries.  I'm pretty sure they don't want Patric taking apart his own computer, yet here we are.  The gifted screwdriver set, one of the best gifts ever. 

Out of place now--the dried herbs.  

It is time to take them down, yet we never seem to get to it. 

The children call us the witches now. 

Aggravating Things

Argh.  Why not finish one before starting the next?  just why?

Moving Discoveries

We knew the bed had been broken before, way back in Alabama.

Patric had done an excellent job of fixing the frame at the time, and it survived two moves.

We had thought.

Then when we were moving some things, we found a split rail and an entire bed being held up by books.

 

Ben: "I don't know.  It was late, so I shoved some books under there.  Then I forgot about it."

Sigh

I Hear It Was Cold

Recently, I was fortunate enough to be here,

when the forecast at home was to be ridiculously cold.

 

And I may have been doing this, when the heater failed at home.

 

I definitely wasn't there when the pipes burst and flooded the main floor.

 

I may have been sitting on my balcony watching the sunrise where I was.

The Standoff

For some dumb reason, Nicholas decided to motivate Elaine to help him with the trash by telling her she was a slave.

 

They stood there, faced-off at the doorway, each refusing to leave before the other.

 

For at least half an hour. The dog eventually believed they were waiting for him to take him out on a walk.

 

And then it Mad Mom Mad.  And I told them to move on because  I needed to get some crap done already.  They should know by now that I am the slave.

Wishful Thinking

My car computers are old.

If we drive more than 100 miles, the it will suddenly notify us that there is no tire pressure in any of the tires and we're driving on rims.  We got used to that.

 

This new trick is aggravating.  The temperature hadn't risen about 20 this particular day.

My Day Before Mother's Day

Oh, that is why we woke on Saturday to no power.

 

It was noon before I could get out to buy a cup of coffee, take the girls to their sleepover, get Ben donuts.  But, I failed at getting Nick Internet by then.

 

They had to fix the power, which happened around noon.

Then the internet later, which happened around 6:00.

 

They did unblock my driveway after I went out and complained.  Hostage with no power and no coffee made for a pretty sour Saturday morning....

Aggravating Things: That Knocking I Hear

This female cardinal was pretty at first.

 

Then she started flinging herself against the kitchen window.

 

When I chased her off, she went around to another side window of the house.

 

And then came back here.  And then went to the front door.  And then came back here.

 

And what started out amusing me became quite creepy over ten days of doing this.

All.Day.Long. while I work from home.

 

But, I have a house to sell, and she is pooping on my rocking chairs and my front door, and she's pecking at the foot plate. And it's starting to make me mad instead of creeped out now. We went away for Spring Break, and then on the first Saturday after returning, she started at the front door at 5:00 am. 

 

I'm sorry that the bird feeder broke in two and fell over during a storm, really.  But I have a few things going on right now.

Aggravating Things

He went fishing.

 

I took the day off and took the kids to Six Flags.

We got there at noon (posted opening time); they didn't open until 6:00 pm.

It took three tries to find a movie theater to fill the six hour void in our day.

The movie theater that did exist didn't have a moving starting until 5:00, so we played laser tag.

We had a blast at Six Flags; until we left for the two hour drive home around midnight and I realized I had lost my phone.

No problem, I'll get another tomorrow before I travel on Sunday. I know the way home after driving around Atlanta all day long.

At one in the morning, the car engine overheats and starts blowing steam an hour from home.

We get a hotel, and resolve to begin Saturday fresh--as in leave the car, get a one-way rental, pick up a new phone.

The next morning, we get a car on the third try, a very expensive replacement phone on the second try, and drive away from the mini-van.

 

Car is now returned, fixed.

Phone replacement problem still being worked out...

Going Fishing: One

Six Flags: -7

 

Freaky Friday

I'm pretty sure I never expected that scorpions would be a nuisance in Alabama.

Aggravating Things: School Supplies

 

We received the girls school assignments and supply lists 6 days before school began, so I hoped over to Amazon after digging the boys' school list off the school website. After the order, I realized that Alida's teacher had used a curly-que font, triple-spaced everything, and ran over onto the second page, which I didn't see nor order.

 

 

Four days to school start:

Meet the teachers.

Receive an entirely new set of school supply lists for the boys.

Remake the master list.

 

 

Take stock of what we received from Amazon and what will never make it before school.

Figure out where the old lists and the new lists overlapped.

Make a new list.

 

 

Then follow all the different teachers preferences for labeling and sending the school supplies.

 

But not before going through the backpacks and finding some rather random things shoved in there from the summer.

 

Seriously: Tell me how much money to send, and I might even send extra money to pay for a needy kid.

Keep doing this list crap, and I will withhold every single extra piece of school supply that arrived to my house in a stingy little cabinet, send the minimum, and burn the teacher optional request list--Post-it notes, ha! Highlighters? Please.  I'm keeping them all!  And I hate those things.

 

Elaine's teacher: she gets extra.  She sent the list early; it was organized; and, I could actually figure out what she was asking for and how much of each.

 

Now, I must go fill out 40 pieces of school information sheets.

No, I'm not kidding.

Don't You Dare

 

Make the first words out of your mouth when you see me at the end of the day for the first time, "What's for dinner?"

 

Unless you have consulted the oracle there and can affirm a positive answer to each of these questions.

 

I am not a servant.  We are a family.

 

Aggravating Things: I'm not a plumber!

Two years into owning this gravel drive, it needed a little patching ahead of some new gravel. 

(And we've managed to drive out a new circular driveway that is just dirt at present....)

We declined the $2,400 estimate to patch and lay gravel, thank you. I have a trip to the beach to think about.

 

So you load the gorilla cart with red Alabama clay from one part of your property, and haul it to another. Then later you call some folks that will just drive over with some gravel and dump it about.  Easy enough.

 

 

You even sneak in a few breaks along the way.

 

 

 

Then, just after you've assigned the last tasks and headed in to warm up some lunch, a girl walks in and tells you: Nick ran over "something" and now there is "water everywhere".

 

 

Said something.

 

 

Find the water main and shut it down;

Hack off the break in the pipe and cap the thing because we knew it was there; we had never attempted to use it.

Done. 

Plumber: other mothering duties as assigned.

 

Half the red clay that was careful packed and molded?

Wet disaster.

For another day.

Not Literally Guys

 

I'm quite certain that they didn't mean that it could be shoved in your pocket and then into the wash when they printed "Washable" on there. 

When You Run Away

 

Ensure that you take a full roll of toilet paper, your toothbrush, and a pack of Pop-Tarts for the road.

 

Then, make sure that you leave a Thermos cup of chocolate milk in the yard for about a week before someone finds it....That may get you invited to run away.

Break Over

Three weeks away.

Four sets of house guests.

Our first school suspension.

Then end of school.

The beginning of summer.

And a dog.



Home Alone

Dear Elaine,

If you ever recall that Christmas when you didn't get many gifts to open on Christmas morning, we're sorry.  We signed up for Parents Night Out; we sent in the check; he came home early from a trip out of town to shop with me for your gifts; we left the front door unlocked, just in case, as we left a little before you would have returned home from school.

And he and I went shopping, in a town 30 minutes away.  And we laughed on the ride over.  We bought coffee.  We joked at all of the crap out there.  We had a long conversation with an 11-year-old about Nerf guns. 

Then we thought to call home, because we had told you to go to Parents Night out at the school after dismissal, but we realized that we hadn't really heard anything more about it.

And you answered the phone.

You: "Hello"
Me: "Elaine?!  Hi, um, how are you doing?" 
You: "We're good.  We're eating macaroni and cheese, and the boys are fighting over the Wii.  We just came home because we didn't know where to go."
Me: "Okay, sweetie.  We'll be home really soon!  We're just down the road," said while I attempted to contain the shrillness in my voice.

Hang up; race around the store with our heads cut off; check out as quickly as we can (ha); race home--because we just left our kids home alone at Christmas time! 

And so, we didn't get your present, which was next on the shopping list, and it was our last chance.  And we found the note above in the bottom of Ben's backpack when we returned to a quite normal house.

When we sat down on Christmas day and shopped the Ty store for you, that was why we did that.

Love you and glad we aren't in jail,
Mom and Dad

Missing Trash Day

 

Here, it usually results in garbage triage of sorts.

All that can be burned, will be burned.

We'll wind up with compost heap before it's over, not because we're going green but because it's easier than remembering trash day