School jitters

School starts tomorrow, August 26th, a week later than it was supposed to. And if the current state of things in the Boulder Valley School District is any indication, it probably won't really start tomorrow either. Too many things are screwed up right now. I suspect the rest of the week will be spent trying to get things to work right and then we'll start for real next week. I'm not, however, saying this to the twins. To them I say, "School starts tomorrow! Better take showers and wash your hair tonight so you'll be beautiful for your zoom calls!" Kid A even begged for and got a haircut today, which amused me. 

It would be fair to say that I am not doing well. I'm worried about so many things, most of which I can't do anything about. I'm trying to pull back from the news stream, but it isn't possible to retreat entirely. I'm so depressed about everything that's happening, or not happening, both in my own life and in the world. There's somehow too much going on for me to be able to pull back and chill.

The heat just won't quit, and the air quality is worse and worse (due to the fires in California more so than our own Colorado fires). I feel ill thinking about the California fires. The fires in the Santa Cruz mountains are WAY too close to home. All the state parks that I grew up around are in trouble. Big Basin burned! I was a day camp counselor at Big Basin! Also my beloved girl scout camp, Skylark Ranch. I read this online, posted yesterday: 

Miraculously, it appears that our ranger’s house survived. Sadly, the tent cabins in the nearby camper unit, did not. It appears that all that is left is the twisted metal roofing. We have no idea what lies beyond this first section of our large camp.

The coronavirus, of course, rages on. As of right now there have been at least 178,008 deaths from it in the U.S. Cases in our area have been going down, which is wonderful, but now that CU has started classes -- some online, some in person -- and the students are back, living in dorms and apartments and fraternity/sorority houses, the case numbers will go up. I really want the boys to go back to school in person, but at the same time I don't want to get sick. So we watch and wait.

My grad school advisor is in the hospital right now -- he's been in intensive care for a week or so, now maybe is a little better, but he's 81 and frail. He doesn't have covid, he has an e. coli infection which has damaged his kidneys. I was urged to write him a funny/snarky email. I couldn't do it. One of my grad school friends organized a bouquet of flowers for him, and I contributed to that.

I think what really took me down -- and this is so ridiculous, but whatever -- was Schoology, the "learning management system" that the district uses. Last Friday, the kids' classes were posted on Infinite Campus, which is an online interface between the school district and parents/students. At that point we also started getting emails from some of the kids' teachers. One of Kid B's teachers sent out a cheerful email telling everyone to check out all the great stuff on her Schoology page. I tried to do that, and realized that Schoology was showing the kids as not enrolled in any courses, so we couldn't access anyone's wonderful Schoology page. OK, fine, I figured it would get fixed soon. 

The kids' schedules were a little funky, so I talked to Kid A's new "caseworker" about it. She said their schedules were all wrong, that they should have only two "solids" (math, language arts, science, social studies) each quarter, and one elective or PE, whereas the twins have three solids for the first quarter. She told me that would be changed, but later an email went out saying "this is it -- the schedules won't change." Fine, fine, we'll deal with it. But while figuring all this out, I realized that the kids' courses still weren't showing up on Schoology. I asked the caseworker about it and she urged me to call IT support. 

Several fruitless phone calls later (I was never able to get through), the caseworker got back to me and said she'd been told that the courses won't load into Schoology until the first day of school. Fine, fine, but why on earth couldn't they have told us that? At the end of the day another email went out saying that Schoology would be working in the morning. The kids are supposed to be signed in to Schoology and taking their first class at 9 am! What if Schoology isn't actually working by then?

well, if it isn't, it isn't, and we will cope.

The straw that broke the camel's back, for me, was that teacher of Kid B's with the wonderful Schoology page. She had also sent out a link to a Google form that she wanted all the parents to fill out. When I tried to fill it out, I was told I needed permission. This had already happened with two other teachers, and when I emailed them, they apologized and gave me permission. So I emailed this teacher and asked for permission. She didn't respond. Today, after the Schoology nonsense got sorted out, I emailed her again and again asked for permission. She said, 

Lots of tech glitches as we get things put together. They will smooth out! Plz ask [Kid B] to open it for you in Schoology.

And at that point my head blew up. 

As I type this, I'm listening to tonight's school board meeting, which is making me angrier and angrier and angrier. I think I need to turn it off and go make scrambled eggs for dinner, since it's after 7 pm.

We don't even have any school supplies yet, because they've never posted updated lists! I have no idea what we need. I'm hoping the kids find out tomorrow.

I need to chill out. I know that. We're in much better shape than practically anyone, anywhere. The world is falling apart around me, but my life is not falling apart. We're all in this together. Everything is going to be fine. And I need to stop worrying, and I need to stop watching the news, and I need to calm down. 

Happy first day of school, everyone (whenever yours is).