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Our long hot summer

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Susan Richards is a retired editor living in Thornton, Colo., near the family and mountains she loves. Her long-standing Pied Type blog contains some 3,800 posts dating back to 2002.

Categories Health, US19 Comments

19 thoughts on “Our long hot summer”

  1. Ha HA – only that individual should be 17-27 years old and wearing flip-flops, shorts/beachwear! Here anyway. Wait! A (illegal, uncooperative) bar scene with a drink in their hands? Add loud music in any case.(Keep the tattoos)
    Places like where you are, Florida, here that have lots of tourists are not just thrilled with the July 4th week and vacationers who don’t care.
    People are now muttering “In 2-3 weeks we’ll see the older groups that are being infected by those bullet proof ones.” And everyone staying indoors with the AC on frigid is not really healthy with this virus either. (How soon is Fall going to arrive?)
    We’re still low and not increasing deaths (due to improved experience to treat) with the ICU’s at normal summer hospital occupancy (90-93% range – normal) and only 15% total hospital occupancy by patients with COVID. Lots of identification with test available and almost all are sent home to wait out mild cases.
    The media however “the sky is falling, the sky is falling”…as usual.
    Hope you’re continuing to hang in there without going bonkers – we are glad to have a little yard – even with the Saharan dust and heat HAHA

    Reply

      1. You know what is sad. There are those who’ve never known real news journalists – you know the ones that give you the facts and let you interpret it and decide how to feel about it all.
        Debate is a loss, too. For many reasons…it was fun to challenge and defend ideas…without yelling or name calling which seems to be the only tactic these days?

        Reply

        1. I certainly know how sad it is. I graduated from the Univ. of Okla. School of Journalism in 1965. What usually passes for journalism these days is nothing like what I was taught. Objective journalism is gone. Advocacy journalism is the “in” thing. Of course, it was a given back then that one could write and knew proper English. Apparently that’s no longer required.

          Do schools no longer offer debate classes and have debate tournaments? That was a big thing once upon a time.

        2. Some public schools still have debate teams – but nothing like it used to be – once all students in this area were mandated at least 1 semester of intro speech class that included debate to teach how to order thoughts, make logical arguments, and not be afraid of speaking in front of a group. (Now more important High School classes seem to have taken that spot…ones like sociology, psychology, child care..) Universities also mandated those going into teaching also take a similar course as part of their grad. requirements.
          We recently lost a legendary debate coach. Legendary – like movie worthy. He shaped many lives…many famous ones.
          One of his last interviews:
          https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/education/campus-chronicles/article/Texas-Southern-University-renowned-debate-coach-14029621.php
          And another article about him after his death at 100
          https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/thomas-freeman-influential-debate-coach-at-texas-southern-dies-at-100/2020/06/18/acfd39f0-b0a2-11ea-856d-5054296735e5_story.html
          Real history – made and was.

        3. I avoided speech and debate classes like the plague. Stage fright, too shy, etc. Finally had to take a speech class in college. Did it in the summer with a small class and it wasn’t too bad (except for no A/C in Norman in the summer).

        4. No AC? Now that’s cruel and unusual punishment.
          The college class I found boring…probabvly the dull students in there…nbo creativity. One thing I learned was always take a prop…like a big hawk that belonged to a friend of mine…and do weird take on topics…like for the” Interesting places to visit” was my closet. Always do the unexpected and keep people off balance…works in many situations ( and you can quickly escape stage left HaHA (Always preferred the backstage to the main stage)
          Hope it’s cooler or at least mild there for the week – bakin’ here

        5. That was back in the ’60s at OU summer school in one of their old buildings. A morning class, and luckily for me, a small one.

          It was “only” 92 here yesterday and my A/C simply can’t handle that. I hate to think about what’s still ahead. Maybe this is the year I’ll finally replace my 19-year-old HVAC.

        7. Seriously! I think builders here are/were under the illusion that because it cools off so much at night, people don’t need adequate A/C.

        8. They can fool tourists making reservations, but real residents? Not likely. We’ve been there during heat waves – at the Stanley once (only once -one night..with kid’s the Shining/ghost/mystery years.) NEVER again

        9. That’s what my daughter-in-law said after spending one night at the Stanley. I don’t recall an A/C problem (maybe it was cool season) but I remember she said no hot water.

  2. We had a public debate on masks down here in Joplin last week and the city council nixed a mandatory mask law 5 to 4. Businessmen were mostly against it as were some medical folks even. SW MO is very much politically red and people resent being told what to do, so I could understand the pols pressures on the issue. One factor weighing in was having to have the cops do the social policing of such a law, hardly a major crime. I was ambivalent on the issue, knowing that laws work best when public sentiment approves. There was an article against mask laws in the Atlantic, link below. I can see both sides of the issue.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/dudes-who-wont-wear-masks/613375/

    Reply

    1. I can see both sides of the issue, and have from the beginning. But at my age, I’m not taking any chances. And I appreciate others being considerate of me. I want to be alive to hug my son and grandkids again when this is all over.

      It’s not an actual law here, just highly recommended and requested. Most businesses insist on masks for anyone who enters … but then many businesses are still operating only via curbside and delivery service.

      Reply

  3. My daughter was on the speech team in high school in the mid 90s. Even though the “extracurricular fee” was supposed to cover a bus to away speech contests, we were advised to have parents on hand ready to drive the kids. This was what happened all the time. A couple of years after she graduated, one parent was so annoyed that he researched the different extracurricular fees. It was discovered that the speech kids paid the same fee as the football players. Can you imagine telling those parents to be on hand in case there was no bus?

    Reply

    1. That’s ridiculous. Is that also what they told the football parents? I’ll bet not. On the other hand, my grandson was on his school soccer team and there was an instance where the school’s bus would take the players to the game but not bring them back! I’ve come to believe school administrators are not the sharpest crayons in the box.

      Reply

      1. Your last sentence is so true.Really scary considering their impact on so many
        Our districts don’t have an “Extracurricular Fee” – District paid for football/cheerleader/band/speech/track/tennis tournaments…Costly, but the district insurance company did not want parents driving any kids to school functions. It was a bit silly – if the parents also went the the games, the kid still had to ride the bus there and back. Parents were allowed to volunteer as sponsors/chaperones for tournaments.
        We were a bit miffed that kids in advanced/honor/AP classes were told on the first day that they would have to pay and purchase some 10-15 paperbacks they would be using “because your parents can afford it” ….money was available for extra reading materials in regular or lower level classes for materials….”Some are more special than others- and you aren’t” apparently just like Animal Farm said

        Reply