Science52

Our good friends will be married 50years in May.  Our son is married 23 years. 

6 hours ago, BillOh said:

Congratulations, I loved our librarians, I recently went on a 45 year reunion tour of our high school and the biggest disappointment was the Library. What use to be 10s of thousands of books is now a multi-media facility.

I remember you from a few years ago.  I was a classroom teacher until 2020 and Covid. The librarian’s job was open and part time. I had a degree in library science which I never used so for four years I became the librarian. But I turned 72 and said I need some time for my husband and me.  We will be married 50 years in August.

I was part of this group when it first started and everyone was retiring. I was a little young then but now it is reality. After 42 1/2 years of teaching, I am retiring.  Actually I have been working part time in the school library for the last 4 years. But now I am ready. 

We live in the area. Cruises out of Baltimore will have to be rerouted including all the traffic going from DC to Baltimore.  My husband use to travel this bridge many times when he was in sales .

This board should be a book.  It follows a world epidemic until present day by people who enjoy the same activity of cruising.  It shows all the changes that our world went through since March of 2020.  I kept telling my students that you are living through a time in history that we will never forget like the world wars or 911. 

11 hours ago, BillOh said:

Been a while since I visited this thread, but it June, I gave my 2 year notice! 🙂  We are short staffed, as we have been for most of my 15 years on this job, but its a notice to my boss when distributing the work of the last person that left, don't put too much of it on me. I can leave at any time, but if you are nice to me, I'll stay till June of 24.

I remember your name from this thread.  I enjoyed teaching and I was not ready to retire completely.  So I am using the other part of my degree (library science) to continue to work in a school.  As the librarian, I don't have to correct papers or do report cards.  I do have to teach the students about books and read to them especially to the young ones.

I have not written since Nov.  but lots of things have been happening.  We went on both cruises (the Chrismas and my birthday cruise in Feb.) and did not get Covid. Came home and got it from a friend.  We did not have it bad.  I cashed in a small 403b so that we could redo our kitchen, floors in kitchen and livingroom and build a new shed. Waiting to finish it in the next two weeks.  We have another cruise planned in 4 weeks.  This is the first year we have taken 3 cruises in one year but we did not cruise for 2 years before because of Covid.  Eveybody's retirement is different.

I will be turning 70 in February, 2022 and I am still working part time which I started last year.  It was the right choice for me.  I taught 32 years full time in this school (and 6 years in another school).  My two grandchildren go to my school.  I plan to work for a few more years because I enjoy working with children and it gives us extra money to do the things we like to do like cruise.

18 hours ago, Tony O said:

According to a Royal executive who was on board I talked to. There are expecting 1600 for the revenue cruise 

My husband and I are on the Dec. 23 cruise.  I talked to you on the meet and mingle thread for Dec.23.  

So it may be 1600 people for the Dec. 23 cruise?  Someone on the thread was from Canada and they have to cancel because Canada says no unnecessary travel so there may be less people.  Some people are upset because RCCL sent us an email that said mask must be worn indoors unless you are eating or drinking.  So I guess we will see on Thursday how many people will be on the cruise.  We have a junior suite because we rolled over several cruises and decided to upgrade ourselves (we usually get a balcony).   

My husband and I are on the first ship out of Baltimore on Dec. 23.  I know that they are doing a test run with the Enchantment right now.

I did not read all seven pages of comments.  But I am a teacher and I have been wearing a mask to school all day five days a week for 1 1/2 years.  My son is a nurse who works in surgery and has been for twenty years.  If it helps to keep me and the people around me safe, it is not a bother to me.  Personally, I have sewn over a 1,000 cloth masks and have given them all away.  Please stay safe because I have lost two family members that did not believe in the vaccines.  They were both healthy forty year old males.

Hi I am back,

Well, I worked the 2020-2021 school year as the part time librarian but I had to bring the books to the students.  Things went well.  This year, we were able to use the library which I had to make changes for Covid ( more space between the seats).  The school year was going well but we had a few cases in the lower grades  just as the vaccine was becoming available for 5-11 year olds. My husband and I have a cruise booked out of Baltimore on Dec. 23.  Hope all goes well.  We also have one book in Feb. for my 70th birthday.

This week my school started a blended schedule.  Parents could choose in school or virtual learning.  75% are in person and things went well this week.  We are a small school  and following all the precautions.  The governor said schools could open on Friday.  Most of the public schools are large and prepared.  I will be working only mornings in the library which at this point, I will be bringing books into the rooms.  It was the right choice for me to work part time because I still feel connected to the school and church.  I loved teaching but wanted a little free time to do other things.  I make good money even working part time.  Once cruising starts up again the extra money will come in handy. 

Additionally, this blog has to do with retirement and how long it is until you retire.  I have been on this site on and off since it started (post number 43).  I was under read52 which had a problem so I had to use a different user name.  The end of last school year I was going to semiretire (collect pension and work parttime).  Covid did change plans. I had to learn how to teach virtually in the last quarter of my last year of full time work.  Most of all I did not go on my semiretirement cruise. I am still going to work parttime because my grandchildren  go to my school so I will still be exposed. It has changed life and it will never be the same. 

We canceled two trips (one cruise).  We were going to cruise with friends from Australia next May but their country is not letting anyone travel. I was answering the post before mine about schools. Montgomery County schools made national news because the public schools 

went virtual and some private schools were going to do in person. The county exec closed private schools and the governor said private schools could make their own decisions.

I teach in a private school so we don’t have to follow the county’s decision. If the governor closes all schools then we have to follow his decision. We haven’t been told yet. We are a small school so we can do social distancing. The public high school across the street from us has 3,000 students.  That school would have trouble with social distancing. We have been wearing masks in Maryland since the beginning of the pandemic too.    In fact, I made 150 cloth masks that I gave to friends and neighbors.

I see that there has been very few posts since the pandemic started.  We had to cancel two trips. One land trip to visit my mom and a cruise in June. We were going to celebrate my semi retirement.  I guess we’ll cruise next year.  School looks like it will be online again.  I will know this week. 

I don't have a picture of it, in August. 2017 we were cruising in Alaska.  As we were sitting in the diamond lounge, it started to snow on the deck.  It lasted about 10 minutes and it was crazy because we were in shorts.  

I am a 68 year old teacher.  It is the last quarter of my last full time job with a class ( next year I will run the library but half days). So for the last 3 weeks I have been doing report cards, getting materials to students, and learning how teach remotely.  Luckily I teach 3 grade and I only have 14 students.  I do get to see two of grandchildren because they go to my school. Every day they come home with me.  They have only been exposed to kids at school because my neighborhood and theirs doesn’t have kids their age.  My other grandchildren live in other states.  I am also making cloth masks for my neighbors.  I do the shopping because my husband has health issues.  I have been a couponer for 45 years so we always have extra food.  We have been ordering some things online.  I leave that to my husband.  I teach in a Catholic school so we are taking our normal Easter break from April 9th- April 20t.

I am a 68 year old teacher. In the last quarter of my last full time year with a classroom ( 3rd grade), I have to teach remotely. I know some technology but this so different. By the way I have used Mystery Science.  It is an excellent program.

Well my last quarter as a fulltime teacher is changing.  We have been off for a week and will be off this week.  DC closed schools until the end of April so we will probably do the same.  I am in Montgomery County Maryland which is right next to DC.  So we will go to teaching online. New ways to check on students.  Luckily I only have 14 students. 

Here is my thoughts about toilet paper,etc.  Since schools are closed for at least two weeks, tp,soap, food are things that kids get from school and adults at work. Now people need to have more at home because they will be in their homes.  The way things have been changing we could be asked to stay home longer.

The governor of Maryland closed the port of Baltimore and all public schools.

The governor closed the port of Baltimore and he closed all public schools in Maryland so most of the Catholic schools will also follow public schools

Just got our refund from RC for the key.  We did not make final payment so just waiting for our deposit  of $200 as a next cruise certificate. Amtrak is also refunding our tickets from DC to New Jersey.  I will miss not cruising this summer but had to cancel because of health problems. Although people recover  Corns virus we don’t know the long term effects. People use to think chicken pox was just a childhood quick illness. But now we have to worry about shingles.  Viruses are more difficult to deal with.