Cutting down on the number of concepts to internalize would have been considered "cheating" or "taking shortcuts" by my elementary and middle school math teachers. How Lecka thinks of fractions is how I was expected to think of them. They were specific points on a number line and *not* division. We were also discouraged from drawing the actual number line or any sort of picture model to help understand what was going on. I remember getting scolded by my 5th grade teacher for drawing little diagrams in the corner of my test papers to help figure out problems. "No more drawings! That's for babies!" 🙄 I just asked DS12 if he knew that fractions were actually division and he was like "Yes...of course?", like I was nuts for asking the question, lol. That makes me feel good!

This is literally the first time in my life I have heard that. It makes sense, though! I think whenever I get hung up on something mathematical, I'm going to now try everything I was told not to do, lol.

Well, that's an easy example, because I can relate it to money. Three quarters of a dollar is 75 cents, or 0.75.

It will likely be no surprise that I did not perform well in advanced math.

I was expressly taught that I should not think of fractions as division, that while yes, 3/4 will equal 0.75 if you divide 3 by 4, a fraction was something different from division. Thinking about fractions as division was called incorrect and lazy. That's about when I gave up on really understanding math. It seemed like the definitions were incredibly nuanced, and unless I was born with a talent for math (which I was not), math would be beyond my grasp.

Here's a link to see the entire book via google books. Jousting Armadillos. The table of contents is the first few pages (obviously. 😉 )

I would imagine whatever software interface they use gives the end user the ability to manually enter new types of vaccines. If it doesn't, the other option is for the end user to select the vaccine type from a pre-populated list or drop down list. However it works, it doesn't sound like a huge coding job on the surface. I have not programmed in a long time, (I used to code for the USAF), and I have no idea how any of the ImmTrac2 stuff is written, but I would not expect a task like this to require a substantial increase in workforce or hours worked. Depending on how everything is written, the work to change the code could take anywhere from an hour to a week of work? Maybe? Maybe a bit longer if they need to take the new vaccine data and compile it into reports. The databases would probably have to be "expanded" to handle the records of the entire state of Texas. Maybe they'd need to add some servers to handle it all. The good thing is that they already have an existing system to add this data to. If they needed to build an entire system from the ground up, now THAT would be heck of a lot of work. Instead, it sounds more like needing to add a few new data fields and scale up database storage. That's much easier to accomplish quickly. I was under the impression that the data was entered into ImmTrac2 at the individual physician's office/point of vaccination. Maybe that is wrong? I could possibly find out this week how that data is entered. I kinda-sorta know a physician, and they might be willing to discuss it with me. If individual shot records are entered at the point of vaccination, I don't think Texas would necessarily need to hire any additional staff to handle the data. If the shots are given at health departments, the health department people will enter the data via their existing computers. The coding and database stuff seems like the easiest part of the logistics, IMO.

Maybe they'll enter all the covid vaccine info into ImmTrac2?

Similar idea, but we had one of these balance scales when DS12 was little: Algebra balance scale We did a lot of experiments with putting weights on one side and then figuring out different combinations of weights to balance the scale. For example, I'd put a weight on "10", and then he'd figure out all the different combinations to make the other side balance. We had a regular pan balance that we played with, too. The goal was to teach that while yes, 2+2 = 4, you could also say that 2+2 = 3 +1. We did a lot of rearranging of blocks, coins, poker chips to find all the different ways of making the scales balance.

I am glad for that, too. ❤️

I live in a rural area, so I don't see a lot of people on a walk outside. There have only been 2 times I can think of where I was outside with a random person: dropping off some recycling and dropping off stuff at Goodwill. Both interactions were less than 30 seconds in length. "Here's my bag of stuff. No thanks, I don't need a receipt!" and off I went. I had a mask with me, but no, I wasn't wearing it. I really don't think that length of exposure is going to transmit Covid. If I lived in a more densely populated area, I would mask outside. I do put my mask on in the car before I enter the grocery store. I don't want to block traffic in front of the store while tying on my mask.

I doubt that has been tested yet and may not be tested for a long while, if at all, since doses will be limited for awhile.

Over the last few months, I've wondered a lot about the people I knew who went off the reason cliff. I feel like I made such a huge misjudgment about their character and reasoning skills. I really, really believed that our beliefs were in-line. We may have different ideas on how to solve or prioritize problems, but surely we could all agree on what the problem was. Surely we could all agree that a pandemic was a big problem, right? And that good leadership would be needed to get us out of this mess? To my astonishment, no, they did not even agree that a pandemic is problematic, and furthermore, they did not want leadership. At all. Someone I knew told me that she didn't view "unifying the people" as any part of the job function of the president, and was relieved? glad? excited? that the current president is not really trying to do that. I don't know how to build a bridge to that. I don't even know how to start, so I stopped trying.

Hello, everyone! Is anyone else experimenting with growing their own food? At the start of the pandemic, DH got interested in hydroponic gardening and growing microgreens. After some failures, we have now had some success! The container on the left has 2 cherry tomato plants, and they are FULL of flowers and green tomatoes. The container on the right has the start of butter crunch lettuce. These are Deep Water Culture buckets, meaning they need an aquarium pump with an air stone attached to keep oxygen in the water. About once a week, I check the pH of the water and top it off, if needed. If water is added, I add more nutrients, too. We tried growing plants via the Kratky method, which requires no pump, but the plants never produced fruit. I was constantly fiddling with the plants, water, nutrients. Kratky is supposed to be "low maintenance", but it wasn't for me. The DWC method is much easier for me to maintain. I don't like gardening here in Texas. Too many bugs, the weather is too hot, the soil is mostly clay, etc. It was a lot of work for little return. But the DWC buckets have been easy! I am really glad we started this, and will add more buckets to try growing bell peppers next.

I was about to say " @drjuliadc's method sounds a bit like Phonetic Zoo", lol.

No solar here, unfortunately. I would love to have it, but it was cost prohibitive when we last checked into it. We are all electric power here and our power company is a co-op, so rates are generally low. It would have taken us 10 years to break even on the cost of solar installation 😕

Everything I've seen says the side effects last about 24 hours. Fever, aches, fatigue. Obviously, I have not had the covid vax yet, but I was vaccinated against rabies several years ago, (pre-emptive to enroll in a veterinary technician program). That vaccine was rough. The first two shots were "normal", (arm was a little sore). The third and final shot gave me a 104 fever, extreme fatigue, headache, and made my skin ache from head to toe. I remember needing to get up to get some Tylenol and it took me an hour to do it, ("Ok, I'm going to put one foot on the floor. Ok, now rest. Now put the other foot on the floor. Ok, I need more rest....". I called the doctor, and they were like "Yeah, you're having the more severe side effects of the vaccine. You'll be fine in 24 hours. Rest, fluids, Tylenol, Urgent Care if the fever increases". And, I was fine in 24 hours, like they said. I'm expecting a similar experience with the covid vax. The side effects of rabies vax were miserable, but getting rabies would be lethal. I'd rather have one $h!tty day post-vax than weeks or months of dealing with Covid and not knowing whether I'll survive.

That's as much bait as I'm willing to take in this conversation. Enjoy your week, ladies.

Glad we agree.

Vaccine compliance and mandates will vary by state. You'll see some states have very good uptake of the vaccine, (like Massachusetts), and other states that will puff out their chest and refuse because "Freedom!" (like Texas). I have no idea if states will or will not be able to mandate vaccines for every citizen, but I can see them making things really, really difficult if people refuse. Don't want to vax your kids? That's fine. That means you get remote learning. From what I remember reading, the Pfizer vaccine was tested in people ages 16-85, so older teens will be able to get it when it's available. Pfizer is currently running a trial on kids age 12 and up.

Visiting the grave of deceased relatives is an inconsistent part of my family tradition. My grandmother used to visit her parents graves and make sure there were wreaths placed every year at Christmas (maybe also other times of the year? I am not certain). After my grandparents died, my uncle kept up the tradition. Other branches of my family do not visit the graves of relatives. My half-siblings mother died several years ago, but they live far away from where she is buried, and it is a source of guilt for at least one of them. One half-sibling has said that she wants to be cremated, because she doesn't want her children to feel guilt about not visiting her grave. Like, she doesn't really want to visit her mother's grave, but feels like she should visit, so any time she's in that part of the country, she feels a duty to go, which sort of colors the entire trip in a sad way. If I lived closer to where my relatives are buried, I'd probably visit once a year. I don't think there is any right or wrong answer for this. If it brings someone comfort to visit, then they should do so. ❤️

You live in such an interesting town.

Those with a soda stream: Is there a particular model you recommend?

Ok, well good luck!

Your SIL might begin to see you as difficult if you push on this. I think that if I had a baby during a pandemic, and my SIL was putting a lot of pressure on my mother about visiting the baby, and requiring a lot of hoops for everyone to jump through regarding testing and quarantine, I'd flip my lid. It's not just about what is right for *your* kids. I don't know how to teach you to be ok with it, unfortunately. You'll have to look over the data on positivity rates and decide based on that.