Back to Work (Thank God)

As implied in the previous post, as of Monday, Sam is back at work. I can't tell you how relieved I am. 

Back at the end of July, Sam got his usual semi-form letter from the superintendent, personalized with his inserted name, stating her "intent" to re-hire him for the fall semester. 

This is always great news but, first of all, it's only part one of a two part process. And second of all, the weasel-word "intent" leaves the proverbial foot-in-the-door and makes it not quite a done deal. This leads to the unresolved second part of this two part process - which is, a firm commitment to actually be able to go back to work. 

This year, returning to work was even more uncertain than in years past. As with pretty much everything else in the world, COVID has thrown an additional wrench into the works. Not only were there the usual issues in transitioning between the summer meals program to the regular school year's cafeteria work, this year, bigger adjustments had to be made.

Gone, for now, would be the re-usable trays, plates and cutlery - all things which Sam would normally be washing as a part of his job. Gone, too, would be things like making sandwiches and wraps to order - another thing Sam would be involved with.  Instead, disposable trays, plates and cutlery, along with an amount of pre-packaged food would be supplied - again, at least for now.

How all of this would affect Sam - whether he would have a diminished work schedule or whether he would be working at all, was up in the air.

Add to this, or maybe because of this, his usual delay between the summer program and the fall program, was unusually extended.

At the end of the summer program, his supervisor had warned me that, between moving from the Middle School back to the High School, and with all of the modifications they would need to make due to the COVID protocols, many of which were still to be finalized, Sam's delay would likely be longer than in years past. How much longer, and how much he would be working, was still a question.

Normally, all the food service workers have a break of about two to three weeks between the end of the summer program and the beginning of the fall semester. A few years ago, after his first transition, his supervisor wisely decided that it made more sense for Sam's return to be delayed an additional week. This gave the rest of the crew time to figure out the logistics of, and set up for, the new school year.  Doing this made a difficult transition for Sam a little bit easier.

This year, just as his supervisor said, his return was indeed delayed - even longer than we anticipated. Rather than the delay lasting the usual three or four weeks, this year, Sam's delay turned out to be closer to Six Anxiety-Filled Weeks (for me, that is, not so much for Sam).

But now, finally, he's back to work.

And so far, for this moment anyway, all is well.

End of Summer Ritual

Sunday night was the night before Sam finally headed back to work - which meant it was also the night for us to get our traditional "Summer is Really Over" ice cream, together.

This tradition started about ten years ago (I'm guessing), back in the not-so-distant days when Sam was still in school. 

Back then, the end of summer seemed to be a lot harder. It was filled with a lot more anxiety.

Maybe it was because he was younger back then- and a lot of things can be hard when you're younger. Or maybe it was because the approach of school carried a lot more "unknowns" - what were the new students going to be like? And would he have different teachers? 

Or maybe it was because of some of the "knowns". School involved a lot of fast moving language, with little or no time to process. And there were more transitions throughout the day- and transitions can be difficult and disruptive.

Whatever the reasons, thankfully, the end of summer seems a little less traumatic now. 

Still, we keep the tradition going. It feels a little nostalgic, plus it's a nice way to finish off the summer and makes this less-difficult transition just a little bit easier. 

Plus, we like ice cream.

Just Passing Through?

On each of the last few walks at the college, Sam and I have seen a few ducks swimming and feeding in the former duck pond. This must be the first time in years that any ducks have bothered to visit the place with any regularity. At least, I'm assuming it's the same ducks each time. It's hard for me to tell. 

I don't know how long it'll last but it's nice to see. Hopefully, they stick around. 

P.S...I still hate the plastic fence.

Today's Update

Pretty Flowers

I have no idea what's going on with Sam's disability review (mentioned here... and probably plenty of other places). As I probably mentioned in that post (I didn't bother to re-read it), this process of apparently having to prove that Sam is still disabled, began back in February. 

Since then, I've had one or two mailings and, very briefly, played phone tag with the person whose name is on the last letter. When I say "very briefly", I mean, I called her, got her voicemail and left a message. A week or so later, she called me back, got my voicemail and left a message. I called her back right away, got her voicemail, left a message and ... never heard from her again.

Since I have yet to hear a meaningful word from anybody (did I mention this whole thing started seven months ago?), I have, for the past couple of weeks, tried to get in touch with this person - or any person - to find out where things stand. But every time I call, I can't even get through to the useless voicemail. All I keep getting is a busy signal - and not even a full busy signal. It buzzes for all of about three and a half buzzes - then cuts out. 

Point made, I guess. 

Today I noticed a toll-free on the letterhead and so I tried calling it. Several times. Each time with the exact same results. Busy.

Apparently I'm not alone. I searched this outfit and there are a total of three reviews. Taken together, it averages out to a whopping One Star.

This isn't one of those situations where one person gives it high marks, one person gives it low marks and one person falls somewhere in the middle. This is one of those situations where all three people give it a one star review. 

(The most succinct review is from Carolyn C. who says, unsurprisingly, "Not even worth one star!!! Cant connect with ANYONE!!!")

I dread getting the "results" of this so-called "re-evaluation". If things stay true to form, there will be a problem. There's always a problem. And then what? Call?

I guess, unfortunately, we'll cross that bridge when we inevitably come to it.

All of which is to say, Today's Update is no update at all.

Nature Walks

With the unofficial end of summer upon us, here is a very small sampling of Sam stopping along our walks to use (mostly) his nature app (mentioned back here). In a few instances, the app gave him so much trouble, he resorted to taking photos instead.

As an added bonus, I've also thrown in a few photos I took (or tried to) of some of his subjects...

 

One of the many rabbets we see on our college walks. Kind of blurry (the photo, not the rabbet). Sorry.

***

This summer's high humidity and rainfall resulted in a bumper crop of wild mushrooms. Sam's Grandpa used to pick these and cook them when I was a kid. With my colorblindness, I don't trust myself to be able to tell the edible ones from the poisonous ones. The app won't clarify it for us... and I'm  pretty sure I wouldn't trust it if it did. We'll stick to buying wild mushrooms at the Farmer's Market.

***

A tree frog on the eyesore-of-a-plastic-fence at the College.

A different tree frog (I'm assuming) on the same eyesore-of-a-plastic-fence at the College.

***

This was going to be a photo of a ladybug but unfortunately, as is often the case, the app took too long to focus and the bug took off. We were not pleased -  with the app as well as the lack of cooperation by the ladybug.

 

We had better luck on a different day at a different location with a different ladybug (again, assuming).

***

These photos were taken just the other night. We're not sure what this alleged bird is because, once again, the app wouldn't focus and the bird got sick of waiting before finally taking off and heading downriver. Pretty sure he was mocking us the entire time.

***

 

 

The southern end of the canal is lined with an abundance of milkweeds and butterfly bush(es?) ("buddleia davidii", to their friends), so fortunately, this year at least, there have been a lot of Monarch Butterflies around. While those have been tough for us to get a good picture of, we've been lucky enough to spot several caterpillars...

... And along with the caterpillars, we've seen a number of their chrysalis (chrysalises? chrysali?). Haven't been lucky enough to have there when any of them opened. Yet. If this changes, we'll let you know.

***

According to Sam's app (one it finally focused), this is a 'Great Egret' - or possibly a regular Egret that just thinks he's great - which may be why he hung around long enough for his photo to finally get taken.

***

And here we have a photo of Sam trying to identify a very large toad. Jake had spotted this guy(?) in our driveway when he was home a few weeks back and he kindly turned his phone's light on it while Sam tried to get the app to focus on it - once again, with no luck. Anyway, it was a nice try - and a nice moment.

***

There you have it. Not quite a summer's worth (considering Sam just installed the app a few weeks ago) but a nice collection, and nice memories, just the same.

This Year's Fair Experience

After a COVID dictated break of no Fair last year, it was a slimmed-down visit to the fair this year - just Helaina, Sam and I. It was also a pretty brief visit, partly because of our reduced group, but mainly because nobody went on any rides. 

Still, we covered the highlights: visiting the displays in the Round House (reduced down from the usual two floors to one - COVID related, I assume), eating too many French fries (like usual) and watching the always exciting pig races with this year's (reluctant) version of "Swifty".

While the morning visit was brief, it wasn't our only visit. We made a second trip back at dusk. This is something we rarely do (and by "we", I mean "me"), but Sam had never seen the Fair at nighttime so I thought it might be fun for him to check it out. Plus, he had hinted that he wanted to stop at the apple crisp booth earlier in the day but unfortunately, it wasn't open by the time we left. Here was a potential second chance.

So we went back to experience the nighttime magic of the fair - and hopefully get some apple crisp. And it was fun - for a little while. Unfortunately, the crowds were ridiculously huge. The front of the fair wasn't too bad but as you made your way to the back, the crowds got more and more... well, crowded. 

And to make it worse, the crowds were made up of the types of people you would expect to frequent a fair at nighttime - people who, for example, cheer for a pig in the pig races who's named after Donald Trump. (sad.)

Despite this, it was kind of an adventure - and fun in a "I'd rather have the memories and look back at the photos and pretend there weren't so many people there" kind of way. 

But the lights looked pretty. 

And Sam got some apple crisp.

Less Than Fair Weather

Yesterday afternoon, Sam and I sat in the rain watching a mercifully short Fair Parade. In recent years, these things have clocked in at somewhere approaching two hours long. Last night's parade was under an hour. I assume this was due at least in part to the less than ideal weather. 

There were a number of people missing who would normally participate in this event. While there were still a couple of marching bands and some drenched kids from the local dance studio, I don't think I saw even one state or local politician marching along - so that was pretty good. 

And between the rain and possibly COVID concerns, there were less old people on floats. Why the parade normally hauls around old people on floats, I'm not sure - but the bottom line is, there were less of them yesterday.

Of course, the rain doesn't explain the missing caravan of Coca-Cola trucks. This "impressive" fleet of sometimes as many as three vehicles, usually follows behind the oil delivery trucks - thus making up the less than stellar grand finale. I'm not sure why the rain would be a problem for these trucks - but I'm glad it was.

One thing that didn't change from previous years was the amount of candy thrown to those of us sitting on the sidelines. If anything, there might have been even more of it than usual. Tootsie Rolls, especially, seemed to be in abundance.

In fact, there was so much candy that Sam came home with his grocery bag stuffed full - which, like usual, he promptly dumped into the still-full bag of last year's leftover Halloween candy. 

The only difference this year, candy-wise, was that most of the candy, having been thrown onto the wet street and into the occasional puddle, was pretty, shall we say, damp. I might be a little worried about this if I thought Sam might actually eat any of it.

Anyway, by Saturday, I'm pretty sure we'll have recuperated from all this excitement - which works out well because Saturday is when we'll be heading up to the fair. As of right now, the weather is predicted to be sunny and pleasant - but I'm pretty sure we'll have a good time anyway. 

Unexpected Conversations

Today, Sam had his first non-in-the-home haircut. He (and I) went to a place in the center of town early this morning. We had stopped in on Saturday but the woman was too busy to take walk-ins. She said that instead, she would come in early Tuesday (today) and give us both a haircut.

My hair was completely in milkweed mode - in other words, normal. Sam's was just a little shaggy and though I thought it looked fine, he said he needed one, so off we went. 

I had mine chopped first, figuring that way, Sam could watch and be better prepared for when it was his turn - and when it was, he hopped in the chair, no problem. 

When it came to his hair, I let Sam call the shots. The only input I gave the woman was that Sam had a scar on the back of his neck that he sometimes felt self-conscious about, so if she could not cut it too close back there, that would be helpful. Sam said that would be a good idea, and he thanked me.

As it turned out, this woman apparently has a son, slightly younger than Sam, who also has a scar on the back of his neck - only his scar was from an accident as opposed to surgery. Also, as was the case with Sam, her son is currently enrolled in a special need's program, though this program is with the town's school department as opposed being in another town. 

And, no surprise, much like me (and most anyone I've ever met who's in a similar position), she's in a constant state of confusion/frustration/anger - depending on what day it is or who she has to battle.

Anyway, it was interesting to talk with her but, more importantly, I think it was a comfort to Sam to hear so matter-of-factly, from someone (other than his dad) that there are other folks out there who have their own sets of struggles, some similar to his, some not - and some of them even have scars. 

And it's all ok.

Correction

Pumpkins! Squash.

Transition Time

Sam's job with the school's summer meals program officially ended just over a week ago. Now we can (hopefully) look forward to starting work for the fall semester. When that will happen is anybody's guess. 

Normally, when the school's food department transitions from the regular school year to the summer meals program (and vise versa), Sam's supervisor kindly delays his start date for about a week. This gives them time to figure what they're doing before involving Sam.

But this year is a little different. This year, they, like everyone, are dealing with COVID. 

Since the beginning of this ordeal, Sam and the entire school  system's food department have been working out of the Middle School - preparing bagged lunches (and breakfast) to be distributed to various drop points around town. 

This is not all that different than a "normal" summer meal program - except that more people are involved and it's been going on much longer than just a typical summer.

Now, with summer gone and the arrival of the fall semester - and with COVID  still with us - the once-consolidated workforce will, for some reason, be dispatched back to their individual schools. For  Sam, this means back to the High School (hopefully). What the meals program is going to look like when he gets back is ... well, who knows?

Gone, for sure, are the hot lunches and food bars. And with them, gone too is the use of reusable trays, plates and dinnerware. This means, gone is the need to be washing all these items - which was one of Sam's primary jobs. 

Gone too, at least for now, are things like making wraps and sandwiches - two of the tasks Sam would also perform (when he wasn't prepping food or washing dishes).

Sam attended a meeting with all his other coworkers about a week ago. Afterwards, I spoke briefly with his supervisor who told me that she'll be in touch. I neglected to ask when. Though, most likely, if I had, she probably wouldn't have had an answer. 

I imagine the logistics of figuring out how all of this is going to work is beyond challenging. And I imagine that figuring out how Sam will fit into all of this is not exactly anyone's top priority right now - anyone's except mine, that is. 

It's been a week since Sam's meeting - which is usually about how long it is before he gets a call. I suspect this year, it might be a little longer. Maybe even a lot longer. For now, we can only wait and see.