Normalcy

At lunch, there was a brief discussion of "it" today. This class has eight kids out... maybe some have it? With the school closed for fall break all next week, maybe "it" will will leave us?

It really is an odd thing. We discus it at for a few minutes at downtimes, then move on with our respective days.

It Has Arrived

"I have a student who is out... with swine flu.". This is the news that a colleague shared with me this morning. Luckily, she was talking about a student in her class, not mine. Unfortunately, her classrooom is across the hall. H1N1 is in the building.

That said, it was here before--last spring. Everyone turned out okay. I'm sure it will be the case again.

Still... it's an odd feeling. I'm not sure if I should be worried or not. At the end of the day, no one knows what to expect. Do the people in charge, the ones who say not to worry, do they really know? Or are they forestalling panic?

Odd times.

From the front lines of... what?

I suppose this blog starts with a few grim anecdotes:

• I was listening to a podcast which discussed a diary written shortly before the start of the Great Depression. It stuck me that the author must have had some sort of vague inkling that things were entering a strange, new, dangerous territory.
• There was an H1N1 outbreak in my school last year.
• I can't get images of Stephen King's The Stand out of my head--and it's a book that deals with a superflu and its devastating aftermath.

So there I am, teaching tweens while I dispense hand sanitizer and hope that we haven't crossed into Stephen King territory! Where are we headed? Only time can tell....