October’s Coffee Talk

Hello and welcome to the October edition of The Ultimate Coffee Date with Coco from Running With Perseverance and Deborah from Confessions of a Mother Runner, where we dish over coffee (or tea, if that is your preference) about all things running (and some non-running topics too).

This month, I have three things to talk about.

If we were having coffee today, I would tell you that my three grandsons are all back at school and they are all following different plans, even though two of them go to school in the same building.

The oldest is in fourth grade. He goes to in-person learning at school, with his teacher two days a week, Monday and Tuesday. The other fourth-grade cohort attends in-person classes Thursday and Friday. Wednesday, the building gets a thorough cleaning. The other three days, he has virtual learning.

The middle grandson, who attends first grade, goes to in-person brick-and-mortar school five days a week, just like normal, except with social distancing and masks.

The youngest grandson, in kindergarten, has only virtual classes. He is pictured here making a “25 Board” (with his dad’s help) for school. Don’t ask me what a 25 Board is. I was never very good at math.

They are all adapting just fine to their situation, finding the good aspects of the particular style of learning they are using this fall. By winter, who knows? Their situation may change.

If we were having coffee, I would describe how the first-grade grandson talked about 9/11 in school this year on the event’s anniversary date. When my husband and I picked him that day, he wanted to discuss it.

“Were you alive on September 11, 2001?” he wanted to know (bless his little heart!).

Yes, I was teaching that morning. After the plane hit the first building, students did not change classes. We stayed in our second-period classes because no one knew exactly what was going on.

My second-period students asked if we could turn the TV on, so we did.

We watched in horror as the second plane hit the World Trade Towers. Big, invincible teenage boys told me, “Mrs. Hess, I’m scared!” I was scared too.

I saw this graphic about 9/12 online and knew it was too good not to share. I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly.

I remember how kind everyone was immediately after 9/11, how we smiled at each other in the grocery store, and said “No, you go first,” when we got in line.

I miss that.

My right hand is very sore, thanks to Carolyn at The Handwritten Thank You Note. 

Carolyn is an amazing writer and blogger. If you don’t read her blog, you should.

Earlier this year, Carolyn posted about a project she was doing to help get out the vote. You make hand-written postcards to send to potential voters. 

I loved the idea of doing something useful, so I signed up to help.

I went to the post office to buy postcards. No luck, they were out. Yes, the post office was out of postcards. Go figure, it’s 2020! 

I checked at the local drugstore, some shops in town, and finally went to the nearest Hallmark store. None of them sold postcards.

Undaunted, I read online that you could use 4 x 6 notecards as postcards, so I bought postcard stamps (the post office did have them) and made my own postcards.

I am sending them out 10 at a time, giving my hand time to heal in between batches.

If you would like to participate, contact me, I will send you the information. 

I hope your post office has postcards!

 

You can find the places I link up here.