We have had a bug going through our co-op since the second week of classes -- in August. It starts as a cruddy cold-type thing, and morphs into bronchitis and at least a couple of kids have ended up with pneumonia.

I have had pneumonia several times. I saw that in the first few posts, several people wished you a speedy recovery. My experience is that "speedy" in pneumonia recovery terms is much longer than for most other illnesses. Do not try to do too much too soon. That often results in a relapse, which takes even longer to recover from. Lots of rest, lots of fluids, take your antibiotic even after you start to feel better.

My grandma worked for a school district when I was a kid. She was known to be the one who knew all of the rules. She told us that it was illegal for a public school to require a student to supply so much as a pencil or piece of paper. By state law, the school had to make available everything a student needed. Of course, many of us did buy our own pencils, binders, notebook paper, etc. This was in CA in the 60s / 70s.

I have used several of the schedules for Apologia Science Co-op classes. Since many of those were donated by other people, it looks like they are still available for free.

This is a very mild prescription. My youngest son's prescription is -18.00, -15.50 And even with that correction, he cannot pass the DMV vision test.

Your original post says "The form emphasized it was completely voluntary and parents can opt out any time after." After what? Maybe you have to sign in and then opt out?

I always get my tires at one particular place. When I need new tires, I go back to them. Last time, my tires needed to be replaced before the warranty miles had been reached. I received a prorated credit against the new tires. The guy told me the tire company might request proof that I had rotated them regularly. My oil change place does free rotations, so I don't go to the tire store to have that done, although they would do it for free. We have notoriously bad roads here, so it doesn't surprise me that they wear more quickly.

Hardly a puddle in sight today, just 70 miles or so north and west of Columbia. I talked to the kids in one of my co-op classes today when they were talking about "having fun" like tubing behind a truck driving down a flooded street. I pointed out that our first responders could end up risking their lives to rescue somehow who ran into trouble doing something like that. They got real quiet, and one of the said, "I never thought about that." They're not bad kids -- plenty of adults don't think about things like that. But maybe some of them will next time.

I have been in an ongoing discussion about gun control issues with a friend who is over-the-top with his 2nd Amendment rights activism. He is just so sure that he is right, and those who have a different opinion are wrong, that it is infuriating. For example, he believes that I am wrong -- like, in sin -- because I do not protect my home, property and family by having a CWP. He also believes that "gun banners" are truly evil people. He thinks that they actually have an agenda that includes wanting to see more people killed by guns, for some perverse reason that he hasn't explained. And he believes that there really were more people killed by baseball bats than rifles in the U.S. in 2012, because there is that meme that says so. I pointed out that although the meme claims to have gotten its data from the FBI site, the truth is the FBI doesn't compile separate data for baseball bat deaths. (They do have a category for "blunt objects", but their examples do not include bats.) When I pointed out that the meme also claims that Chicago had over 1800 homicides by firearms that year, while the FBI stats show that the total was actually something like 532, he says that he has verified the 1800 number via several sources. When I asked him to "show me", he refused.

Arghhhh ... that's all. Majorly frustrating conference today.

For part of last week, our area (Upstate SC) was predicted to be the bullseye of the target area for the worst of the rainfall. Then the front stalled, and it ended up being about 70 miles south and east of here. I couldn't believe the people on FB taking our local weather guy to task for being "so wrong". It was like they were angry that we didn't get flooded out. I continued to get alerts on my phone throughout the day today, telling about things like how many hundreds of roads are closed, bridges unpassable, and even a new dam breach today. This is going to take months to fix. And, ironically, one of the biggest needs they have right now is water.

Huge mess here in SC. The worst of it (so far) ended up being South and East of us. We are still supposed to get more rain today, though. And there has been some local flooding. We are under a state of Civil Emergency. Everyone who is currently safe and dry is supposed to stay put. It sounds like people locally aren't taking that seriously, but I decided to stay home from church. I don't want to contribute to any problems. Emergency responders are risking their lives to rescue yahoos who don't have any business being out and about. I woke up to see several wet spots on the ceiling in my hallway. Great .....

Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel was just broadcasting from our area. Maybe some of these people will take this seriously now.

I am concerned that the whole thing is moving so slowly. I am watching The Weather Channel now. Stay off the roads, people!! It makes me mad that our emergency response people will be risking their lives to rescue people who didn't *need* to be out. We had been warned about this all week. There was time to get supplies. People should just stay home.

Major sinus headache developing. UGGHHHHH! As the day is breaking, I'm finally able to see outside. We have had much worse puddling during past rains. But this ground is saturated and there is nowhere for any more rain to go. Trees are starting to fall around the area, causing power outages already. That is expected to increase when the wind picks up this afternoon and evening.

Some students will be in for a big surprise when they go to take the new PSAT (less than two weeks from now) and find that one part of the math test does not permit the use of calculators.

We got rain last night, then some breaks along the way, but more rain overnight. It is pouring now, and our local weather guru says the worst is yet to come. Really heavy rain coming, along with some strong winds late this afternoon. I cannot believe that they are still saying that the "game must go on" over in Clemson tonight. The field will be a mess, with slipping and sliding meaning more injury potential, traffic in and out of the stadium will be a disaster, parking will be crazy because they are closing the many grass parking areas. I am a huge sports fan, and I was looking forward to this game, but common sense says it needs to be rescheduled. I understand that rescheduling a football game is a headache, but this is stupid!

v What our local weather folks are saying it that neither one of them by itself would have been so bad, but it's the combination of the two that is going to slam us this weekend. They say that the low pressure system coming off the Gulf is sucking in the rain from Joaquin.

Nevermind ..... it has shifted overnight. Now the area where we live is in the 15" range. Sigh .....

ummmm ..... earlier in the week (I haven't looked this morning, yet) Greensboro had the highest rainfall predictions. At least a couple of models had over 20 inches predicted.

But even without landfall, we are supposed to get torrential rainfall.

We already had a death and lots of damage in our county Wednesday night / Thursday morning due to flooding from another storm. We have been under a flash flood watch since sometime Wednesday that continues through Monday morning. The weather forecasters are emphasizing that it's not the hurricane itself that is going to hurt us. it's this other front coming in from the West that is sucking in the precipitation from the hurricane. In any case, we are being told this could be one for the ages. We are about 150 miles from the coast. Yesterday was a normal shopping day for me, so I hit Aldi and picked up a few things from a couple of other stores. I did think a little more about making sure I had things I could cook if we lose power. I did buy a new car charger thingie (that goes into the power outlet) because I haven't been able to find mine for three weeks now. If we lose power, I'd be able to charge my phone.

This is what I have not been able to articulate when discussing with a friend who is all about his guns. Well, and his money.

Are you sure about this? Because it is my understanding that in OR, students may carry guns on campuses with a CWP.

I was hoping to hear from someone who is truly very sensitive to sugar, which it sounds like you are. I'm not a big tea fan, but the times I've had McD's sweet tea, one sip was all I needed to know it was sweet. I can't imagine someone ingesting enough sweet tea in one taste that it would have lasting health issues, although I suppose it is possible. But if that were the case, I would think the person wouldn't hardly dare to eat or drink anything she hadn't prepared herself. There is a little bit of sugar hidden in lots of things most of us probably don't think about.