Beneath the Wraps

                 I was volunteering at the library the other night and was given the assignment to find some missing books.  As I was searching the shelves I came across Heather Vogel Fredrick’s book – Pies & Prejudice from The Mother Daughter Book Club series. I grabbed it for the series title.  One of the books that Jaime and I had read at the library mother daughter book club was Pie by Sara Weeks ( here ). I did not see it as a play on words from the title “Pride and Prejudice” until later nor a book series.  Nor do I understand why something in the Juvenile section would have such a tiny font.  I have seen bigger fonts in the young adult.  So for the most part I have been reading with a magnifying glass.  That is getting tiresome.  Thus I may not finish.             I was also reminded of the Beehive Award when reading that this particular book is an Oregon award fi...

          It ’ s been just over a year that I had made the decision to cut expenses and find less costly alternatives to the essentials and just do without wasn ’ t necessary.  Pulling the plug on the entertainment system did not set well with Richard who decided he would find another job.  Everybody seems to be screaming for employees and yet finding a job has been rather challenging. Thus we have been living on Richard's social security for a year plus equity (that was his alternative) and when school let out he decided he would go back to work as a substitute teacher.          He jumped so many hoops to get there.   When we went out of town during Labor Day weekend it was still unclear if he ’ d be working.   But every weekday we were gone Richards phone went off with job offers (or at least one job offer) within the surrounding school districts which he was unable to accept until this morning...

            Currently there have been over 57,600 recorded cases in Oregon and over 700 deaths due to the cornavirus disease.    As of this week Douglas County makes up for 862 cases with 10 deaths.   Douglas County is 5,134 square miles with a population of just over 112,000.   The largest city within the county is Roseburg with the geographic size of 10.93 mi²  (whatever that means . . . math) with a population of almost 24,000.    Douglas County is considered to be a part of the Red zone. As of tomorrow to at least January 22 all students attending Roseburg schools will have to do so online except for K-3.   Apparently they are to remain in school until the authorities learn that it was probably never a good idea to do that in the first place. I don’t know about the other surrounding cities, but the two school districts within the area in which I live seem to be in full operation right now and will contin...

                  I had heard that Portland was making all of their education virtual.  Other areas have had the option of returning to a brick and mortar school or continuing online.  There have been reported cases and temporary school closures. Are you kidding me?  Temporary? The announcement is as follows:  “               school will be closed today as one or more students have tested positive for the coronavirus.  The school will be closed tomorrow in order for a deep cleaning . . .”  Really?  The school is going to be closed so that disinfected and rid of all germs so that it will be safe to return the following day?  Give me a break!  One school was closed as it was understaffed and unable to find instructors.  Well, duh?  My concern about reopening schools has always been for the instructors as I had believed they’d ...

One of my goals this year was to post a specific word at least every other week.   I don’t know that I posted any words in the month of October.   I haven’t been making good use of my time and didn’t post what I had in mind for yesterday.   I had to take the car in but figured I would write my post after I returned home. While at the mechanics I received a phone call but couldn’t seem to answer it in time. I saw that it was one of the elementary schools and tried to return the call, but it didn’t go through.   I realized there was a message and listened to it.   The assignment is not until next week.   I called back to let them know that I can only work one of the two days that were mentioned. I went home and looked up available sub jobs to accept the assignment, only it wasn’t listed.   Instead, I saw a position at the middle school for yesterday – though it was passed the time posted.   I called the school to ask if someone was still n...

           I dragged my family to the high school last night.  I understood the meeting to start at 5:30, but it must have started at 5:00 as we walked into a mass production that had already obviously started.  It seems that the focus was mainly on just one school, though the elementary next to it had been mentioned.  There were parents there for both group.  I saw several youth but not a huge number.  The meeting was at the high school library and it was filled and overflowing.           Three separate events had taken place.  The first was a threat made by a person that was being bullied.  The threat made was toward the bullies and not the entire school.  On October 23 a "prank" phonecall had been made to 911 about a shooting.  Two youth were arrested.  Last week there a note had been left in one of the bathrooms lea...