No matter how many times I hear Hey Jude, I am always moved to tears.
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Devoted to You, an Everly Brothers hit in 1958, was covered by the Beach Boys, by Linda Ronstadt, and by James Taylor and Carly Simon. And by me.

I sang my vows to Garth on our wedding day. More to the point, I warbled…because I’m no singer. And that was the point.

We were both a little shell shocked from all that life had thrown at us and were understandably wary of another marriage. I just wanted to reassure him in the most sincere way possible that he had nothing to worry about, and standing there open, vulnerable, and filled with love, warbling my promise just felt like the way to do it.

I’ll never hurt you,

I’ll never lie,

I’ll never be untrue,

I’ll never give you reason to cry . . .

I don’t remember looking at anyone but Garth while I sang, but I was told there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, including his, and my own. Somehow I made it through the entire song.

In a sense the Everly Brothers have book-ended my life in terms of meaningful songs…before I even knew what true love was (as I wrote about in my other story on this prompt), and when I finally knew for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 2/2/22, my granddaughter’s school declared a “snow day” during a moderate snow storm that ended mid-afternoon. Parents and teachers were upset because the school made the call late, when staff and students who arrive early for before school activities were already there. Perhaps the strange date filled with twos made the day feel auspicious. But I have another theory. Perhaps the ability to have online learning substitute for actual school made this an easy call for the administration. But why no school the following day? Was this a make-up call for the bungled late notice the previous day?

I looked out the window of my condo on Snow Day Part II and saw cleared roads, buses and trains going by, cars easily making their way down the street, and pedestrians not even bundled up on a calm winter day with temperatures in the mid-twenties. Granted, there was a “winter weather advisory” that predicted a 30% chance that it might snow one to four inches, but come on. This is February in Chicago, and weather forecasts are often wrong.

Actually, there are no more “snow days” that need to be tacked onto the calendar at the end of the school year. While many kids learned very little since schools in my community were closed to in person learning in March, 2020, and remained closed until “hybrid learning” in the spring of 2021, our school district evidently learned something: that some form of online learning could be used in lieu of actual “snow days.” For my granddaughter, this meant asynchronous classes in which the teachers assigned more homework without doing any actual teaching. While teachers did learn how to teach synchronous classes over zoom, which means they presented actual lessons and students could participate and ask questions, this is not what happened during these “snow days.”

Perhaps teachers did not have lesson plans and materials at home to provide this more meaningful educational experience. But why not? If the plan is to plug in online classes whenever in-person school is closed, shouldn’t staff have a back-up plan available for these occasions? Yesterday, my granddaughter completed assignments without any instruction, some on topics that had not yet been introduced in class. The following day, she and her friends went ice skating. And why not? She could do her assignments anytime and no one seemed to care.

I think she and her friends deserved to have fun. They missed the end of middle school, including their graduation. They spent most of their freshman year of high school at home in front of computer screens. They attend school masked and miss out on many typical after school activities. My granddaughter has been dancing in a mask for almost two years and has had many performances and recitals cancelled. Life has been far from normal with the pandemic shaping her life.

As a former preschool director, I do understand how hard it can be to make the correct call about closing school for snow. When these days had to be made up, there was more pressure to make the right call. Now that schools believe online learning is an adequate substitute for in person education, we are likely to get more “snow days.” If we learned one thing when schools were closed, it was that many students, for a variety of reasons, do not learn very much via computer classes. Unfortunately, we also learned that this type of schooling counts.

On Snow Day II, not one flake of snow fell. Why wasn’t my granddaughter in school?

 

User Manual

Although my son says only wimps read directions,  I really need them to assemble mechanical stuff that I buy.

Just recently Florida friends sent us a crate of oranges.  We had an old citrus juicer that didn’t work very well,  and so now with all those oranges to squeeze I decided it was time to get a new one.

I sprung for a rather costly,  electric model,  and the next day the Amazon guy – quite a regular visitor lately –   dropped it on my doorstep.

Carefully following the directions in the user manual I placed the Juice Bowl ( fig E ) on the Motor Unit ( fig N ).  Then I positioned the Pulp Filter ( fig J )  and the Reamer ( fig D ) onto the Drive Coupler ( fig M ).

I next attached the Lid  ( fig A ) which was a little frustrating at first as the little flanges didn’t seem to fit in the little slots on the Juice Bowl ( fig E ).  But after intoning a few choice four-letter words,  I finally got it all assembled.   It was well worth the time and effort and now my husband and I have delicious,  freshly-squeezed  OJ every morning!

And recently at the dentist I was called on the carpet for not flossing my teeth regularly.  I have a Waterpik,  but it’s rather old,  has to be recharged periodically,  and honestly I haven’t used it in months.   So for the sake of my dental health,  I decided to order the new,  sleeker,  battery-operated model.  The next day my friend the Amazon guy was back.

I opened the manual and turned to the English-language instruction page.   Luckily the Waterpik came fully assembled except for the 3 AA Batteries ( fig 8 ) that thankfully were included.  I had some trouble getting the Battery Door ( fig 3 ) off,  and after inserting the batteries,  I had more trouble getting the damn thing back on.   But I finally did,  and now you can tell my dentist I’m flossing every night!

Call me a wimp,  but I couldn’t have done all that without directions,  and now do you know if you lose a user manual you can usually download another from the company website.   In fact some products don’t even come with manuals any more,   just links for printing them out.

And since you can find directions for most anything online nowadays,  now I thinkI’ll google   “Living with a spouse during a pandemic”  and  “How to raise an offspring”.

As I remember,   neither of those came with a manual.

– Dana Susan Lehrman