I have been trying to sit down and write this post for a few days now.

My success rate is not there.  I have failed at doing so.

I don’t know why kids have to get killed in car wrecks.

I don’t know why I feel helpless in being able to those in need at a time like this.  We do the best we can do…but I just have a hollow feeling all over that leaves me feeling quite useless.  Most of it can be traced to a little thing called a “mask”.

Can you believe it?  We are near on a year of wearing masks to cover our faces to stay safe.

I work in a school I was hired into after mask season began.  These kids don’t me.  They know that guy behind the mask.

Yes, of course.  There have been some very good moments within this realm at times when goodness needed to show itself and be counted on.  For those moments I am thankful.  But I am a social fellow by nature. Not always easy to get to know but certainly easy to get along with.  That I feel that students still don’t know me renders a frustration that I can’t comprehend.

I chuckle when I hear about schools planning on opening, given schools in my area of Indiana have been open for some time.

I don’t chuckle when I hear of states wanting to make Covid vaccines a priority for their teachers when I know the leadership of my home state is obviously not wanting to be bothered by such a thing, as they are looking at school funding issues that don’t resemble the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic.  All of that is quite mind-boggling too.  That is another layer of hollow that makes me sad.

I have said it for years.  Kids don’t vote.  Education is a political football that is not usually kind to kids.  Don’t get me started on The Class of 2000 and the great twenty year Graduation Qualifying Exam experiment and what that has done.

Test Scores 1  Civility 0

Now some colleges are test optional (SAT and ACT).

We are just ahead of the study that will eventually come out and most will say “no kidding.”  It has been a hard lesson.

Sadness.

I conveyed to a brother of Veronica Battista that when she entered the room it was a better place.  I enjoyed sitting next to her on the stage at NHHS during Senior Award Night.  She was a comfort there.  I respected her a great deal.  The school board will miss her leadership.  The whole school will. Her family will miss a treasure. I will miss a friend.  58 years old, Veronica was.  That looks younger all the time.

Sadness.

Family and friends in the south dealing with power outages, water supply-less issues, cold temps they are not used to.  Thank God the temps are going up.

Happiness?

Well, we press onward.  I got to deliver vittles to my folks and see them for a little few minutes at a time.  Yes, I wear a mask there also and I do not stay around long.  Glad the phone works.

Took a few snowy pictures.

St. Louis Rd toward Frenchtown.

St. Louis Rd toward Milltown.

The Blue River down there.

This interesting visitor came to listen to The Moody Blues.

Really.  He could not have gotten any closer.  He stumbled around the yard for a while.  Eventually he stood with his swings spread out.  He walked into the woods.  That was that.

And a snowy Griswoldmobile.

Take care of each other.

And speak the rights if you need to.

Danny Johnson