Apocalypse now

9 AM - 13 students in the room

We carried on and did a new lesson in math for those who were here.

9:50 - break

9:57 - started period 2

10:00 - student tells me they got a text from their parent saying school is done.

I head to Social Media - Yup . Announcement from the government. 

Really bugs me they didn't share with school districts first and then on to schools and us.

They want us to be a partnership and they blindside us with info.

How can we support kids and their families when they don't give us info.

I go in the hall and see three of my colleagues with the same stunned look on their face.

It's just surreal.

By 11 AM all my kids were gone. Some cleaned out their lockers and took their stuff. Some did not.

Staff are sitting around stunned. unsure what to do.

I mean I have read a ton of Young adult books with that post apocalyptic theme, but now I seem to be living it.

Friday the 13th

Let's face it. Friday the 13th often brings chaos in schools. It's like a full moon.

I should have known things were up when there were so few kids in the hallways.

I ended up with 17 of 29 students. It was weird.

We pushed ahead and taught new things as we can't stay in a holding pattern forever.

The other gr 7 classrooms were the same. 

The news is full of Covid struggles.

Ontario, Quebec, BC and Manitoba have announced school closures.

And so it begins

Infusion day in Stoon

Hearing rumors that stores are running out of items - flour, yeast, cleaning products, toilet paper.

None of any of the above here in town.


So off I go to Stoon and the first thing I usually do is head to Costco. It's always busy there. I mean do people work??? I know why I am not at work but everyone else???

Busier than normal.

I head to the back where I always do. No Kirkland TP. I see a few people with it in their carts so there was some. Was.

I grab the permitted 2 of Purex TP. Not my favourite but...well. As a girl with colitis, I go to the bathroom a LOT. I need it. Running out would be all kinds of awkward.

There is also no cleaning products, no flour or yeast, and very low amounts of pasta, pasta sauce. It's eerie. I have to say.

At my appointment the nurses seem unconcerned. Our conversation was more of the 'why are people stockpiling' focus.

It was an odd day for sure. Only took 3 tries to get my IV in this time.

It was supposed to be a PD Day

Some of our professional development is great. It makes sense. It's realistic. It is do-able.

Some of it is definitely less so. Usually this PD is planned by the district office as something they think is very important. And usually it has no practical applicability to the every day life of teachers.  Those grandiose ideas envisioned by people who haven't been in a working classroom in years, if ever.

So today we headed in wondering which category it would be.

It was kind of ….neither.

Our teaching federation decided they were going to impose sanctions - work to rule - as our contract negotiations were going nowhere. Again, the government is another body who has no idea what life is like in the teaching world day in and day out. Or the health care system. Or farming life. or... well you get the idea.

Sanctions would start Thursday. We are not allowed to arrive until 15 minutes before the bell and must leave immediately at the end of the day. No noon hour support. No clubs or teams. It's never something we enjoy.

So our PD topic of the day was mostly  blur for everyone as we tried to figure out how to teach effectively without being able to prep effectively.

It's upsetting for students. parents. staff. everyone

Our Trip to Florida

It's definitely a state I have never been. Honestly it wasn't high on my list of states to go to...probably not in my top 10.  I am not a beach girl. I am not a hot weather girl. I am not a big crowd girl.

But Florida is the home of DS1 currently and we planned our trip down to coincide with a weekend where he plays 3 games at home. This is rare for his team.

It's definitely a long way from the prairies of SK but he seems to have adapted well. He drove down, weaving his way through Minnesota, to visit his college roommate and his new wife. He didn't get a chance to visit his US mama and she was definitely disappointed. Then we drove through Wisconsin, Illinois, and made his way down to Nashville. The Minnesota Wild was there playing, and one of his friends plays for that team. They had a quick reunion.

Then onwards down to the panhandle of Florida, where he met the team owner, manager and was shown to his new place, just a stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico.

There are definitely some covid concerns as we headed down. We flew through Minneapolis where there were no masks to be seen. Then onwards to Atlanta. Lordy that's a big airport. It was surprisingly easy to find our way to the shuttle and figure out what terminal we were in. You could definitely feel the humidity and heat in the air It was a long layover.

We arrived in Florida just after 7 PM. DS was waiting in long term parking. It was so good to see him after 5 months. He always looks so comfortably at home no matter where in the world he is living.

After a quick supper, we started to our hotel. We had been up and travelling for 18 hours. It was a pretty drive through the city and then we headed towards our hotel. He lived on the beach so we travelled across a really long bridge, and then a shorter toll bridge to his island, where our hotel also was.

I am so glad we booked a Gulf Facing room. There is nothing quite like opening up your balcony and seeing the Gulf (though it was getting dark) and hearing those waves. It was a beautiful feeling. We sat there and visited for about an hour then he left to go home.

We had lots of long walk on the beach. It was super windy and during one of them it started to rain. Most of the time there were very few people on the beach. Just those silly Canadians. For the rest it was probably too cold.

His beach community is mostly hotels, condos, beach houses and restaurants. Definitely a tourist area. But since it was off season, things were fairly cheap, especially for accommodations.

He left us his vehicle so we could drive about and see more of the area.

His arena was nice, but it is definitely weird being in a rink where so few people really understood hockey. Most have never been on ice themselves. There was a lot of spectacle - smoke show and laser beams and all that jazz. A few other parents were down as well - from New York, from Michigan, from New Jersey and another family from Saskatchewan so we got to visit a bit. It's amazing that we knew people in common from the hockey world.

We did a lot of beach restaurants, which was ironic since I am NOT a fan of seafood. DS took us to one of the sponsor restaurants, which was definitely most costly. Thankfully he got things at half price. Definitely a place you tip well. Interestingly, there are no restaurants open after 10 PM, which is  a pain if we wanted to go somewhere after his games. Not even fast food restaurants. The only one open was called Whataburger, which reminded me of a Mc Ds.

We visited his condo and he took us for a drive on the Scenic Route, which is so very narrow and sand dunes everywhere.

The trip home was definitely more hurried. A quick flight to Atlanta and a rush to get to the proper terminal and gate. Starting to see masks. Getting off in Toronto - masks and gloves everywhere. This is probably one of the poorest labelled airports and stressful for someone who doesn't know where they are going. A short layover didn't help. It was a lot of run run look look swear run and we got to the gate 5 minutes before boarding was done.

The flight back to Saskatoon felt like forever.

For me, this was the best Florida trip possible. Low temps. Low crowds. Our own pace. Lots of sit and relax and read and walk time.