Ithan Henry

My wife tells me every car or truck I buy is a mid-life crisis purchase. So apparently I've been having one since I was 25. ?

Yeah, he'll play with it. He loves anything mechanical.

My son would love this. Is it still available?

It's people like this that ruin it for the rest of us. Just wear a damn mask so we can continue towards normal. Doctors and nurses wear them to protect their patients, why can't we do it to protect each other? Oh wait, I forgot it hinders our freedom. I'm just gonna sit over here and shake my head in disbelief.

One good thing I was reading is that the virus has started mutating to a version that is less deadly but transmitted faster. So hopefully less serious but expect more cases. I should probably note that this good news came from CNN, so it's probably totally biased and fake news. ?

The problem isn't that students are high risk. It's that they're carriers. Which means that their families and teachers which make up the older population are now at risk. It's not a simple solution when you factor in who they're in contact with daily.

The process of refining such a system would take at least 2 years of training, redesigning our logistics, and millions of dollars to create a new infrastructure capable of supporting it. We're losing $1.5 million in state funding this year alone which is making us scrounge for the necessary funding just to get us in a better place than we were last year. We overtaxed our online learning platform last year which created numerous problems. There were students without access to computers or the internet. We were problem solving on the fly. And this was just in my district. Statewide would cost hundreds of millions if not more to create a viable infrastructure. We also have to consider the fact that most of our families don't have anyone home during the day to monitor the children. My wife and I, both being teachers, are scrambling to get one of our parents to possibly watch our son if we do a partial opening. There are so many factors that play into this it's mind numbing. Honestly, we could easily do it in NJ if we weren't contributing so much of our federal taxes to other states. I already posted a link about federal funding so I won't go any further back into that.

We're still being told to prepare for 3 possibilities. 1st is a full return, which is what the department of educating is pushing for. 2nd is a partial return with students coming in half time on a staggered schedule so only half the students are in the building at any given time. 3rd is a continuation of online learning. My gut feeling is that we'll return full time in the beginning, but there is a real possibility that we'll do online learning once flu season starts. Most teachers I have talked to want to return full time knowing that online learning isn't beneficial to students. We know the risks and will support the teachers that shouldn't return because of their underlying health conditions. We'll never be able to social distance in a school building and we know this. My wife is already preparing to have to wear a full face shield when she goes back to her classroom since she's high risk. It's not ideal since she teaches kindergarten and 1st grade. We'll figure it out, we always do.

It was a good race. Did you watch it?

Bingo.

Washed the TB since it wasn't supposed to rain for the next week. Fast forward 6 hours, and it's raining. Gotta love summer weather.

Saw the same thing on my local news. Kinda speechless.

Looking forward to the Xfinity series running the Indy road course. Hopefully it's a entertaining as the Roval.

That last lap at Talladega was good racing. Gotta enjoy a race when the finish is that close. Back to back at Pocono this weekend. Hopefully Chase can rebound and get some stage wins.

I understand that reporting of decreases is important. And my local news has been doing that better than any of the major news corps. But let me pose this question. Our hypothesis thus far has been that the increased heat and sunshine should weaken the virus. It was discussed at the press briefs by both the current administration and the task force. If this is the case then shouldn't having 20+ states showing increases be important?

Martinsville at night was a cool race. Penske team is looking real strong. Would have liked to see Chase finish better, but he still had a good showing. On a side note Bubba Wallace had a great paint scheme and would have liked to see him in victory lane with it.

I'm not here to bait anyone, I simply ain't got time for that. As for NJ, I've expressed my opinion that Gov Murphy did an excellent job in the beginning. We were unfortunately affected by a very dense population in the northern part of the state that works with NYC. Now, I have also stated that I believed my students should have a chance to experience graduation. I just found out today that we'll have pools open before graduations are allowed which confused and upset me. For where I am, the shutdown was necessary, but should have moved towards opening about 2-3 weeks sooner. Did all the states need to take the same precautions as NJ? Obviously not. I only came back into this topic after I saw all the nonsense about conspiracy theories regarding this being some sort of political plot. As far as us looking back and critiquing what happened, yes we absolutely need to study how we responded and what we can do better next time. That's obvious and to not do so would be irresponsible. But to criticize, well as I said weeks ago hindsight bias is always 20-20. Being angry because it wasn't as bad as we thought seems irrational. I'm happy it's not as bad as we thought. Let's figure out how not to have this happen again.

I'm not trying to be interesting or flashy. I'm not someone that leans far left or right. I'm capable of reading the data and coming to my own conclusions. The reason I'm in line with the experts is because I have a background in statistics and understand that things change. I've acknowledged that the numbers have changed and that one size fits all restrictions don't work. I didn't condemn Georgia when they opened, instead I hoped they made the right decision and watched the stats. I said Cuomo was playing to the media and but still could see that the situation was serious. I'm near the epicenter and have seen how serious it can be. I think what bothers people the most is that I don't treat politics like a sporting event. I don't root for one specific team. When mistakes are made I call them out no matter what side made it. More people should try that instead of defending their "team" at all costs.

As things settle down I've made some observations that I find interesting. 1) When this all started, people were saying it's overhyped and not to bother them until it exceeds the flu numbers. Well, it did, by a lot. And now, those same people are changing their benchmark as to what will make this serious. Stop moving the goal line. Just admit that you'll never consider it serious unless it personally affects you. 2) People really don't understand how science works. This is a new virus, that they had no chance to study. They had to extrapolate data from other viruses and adjust their recommendations along the way. That's how science works. It starts with a hypothesis and as we learn more we adjust our hypothesis. People accept science when it helps them but condemn it when it doesn't fit their narrative. 3) Everyone is out to get the President. Hey, newsflash, this administration appointed Dr Birx, Dr Fauci and the Surgeon General, all who are giving the same advice. But somehow, they're part of the far left trying to destroy this administration. Well, you have two options here. Either the experts he appointed are correct and you won't admit it because it makes the current administration look foolish. Or the President is a terrible at determining talent, which is why he has a revolving door in this administration. Pick one, those are the only two that fit. Stay safe, it's clearly getting better now, and hopefully we'll get better news about the possibility of a vaccine sooner rather than later.

Looks good. Nice upgrade.

How close to Philly are you?

I know. I still can't figure out where he got that from. Might have to get a paternity test. LOL

Let's go Chase! Get that siren going in Dawsonville!

That was a good race. I think Busch knew that if he tried to pass Chase he was getting spun out. I'm liking this new schedule that NASCAR has. Another race tonight in Charlotte. 2 races per week at the same track. Can we get this next year also? I think it would be awesome to have the Coke 600 on Sunday, and then get the Roval a few days later.

Gov Murphy announced that in person graduations will be allowed starting on July 6th, so long as social distancing guidelines are followed. This was a nice surprise. I've been telling my colleagues that this should be very possible with our class size and the space we have, and as it turns out it will happen. Very happy for my Seniors that they'll get the ceremony they deserve.