Charles Bandes

Gentle reader, be warned that a rant is incoming. Our crazy state declared the other day that they were going to force the schools to open  for fully in-person five-days-a-week instruction starting in April. This is such a dumb idea I don't even know where to begin. But what the

We've got a new president, but the death count keeps rising. I think back to a year ago when this number was unimaginable. Now it seems like just a marker on a road to something worse.

Yesterday the state opened up vaccinations to more people, and due to some medical conditions that I won't get into here, I qualified for an appointment. Navigating the state's vaccine websites was a bit of a nightmare - their server capacity wasn't nearly up to the demand, and appointments were

On 45's last day, we reach another milestone in his bodycount. That's all I have to say.

It's been a few days since the attempted coup and the riots. Things have been relatively quiet, but I (and probably most of the country) remain very much on edge and very nervous. Over the last few days some good things have happened. There has been widespread condemnation of the

When I woke up this morning I was feeling really good. Today was supposed to be the day that the electoral vote was finalized and Biden officially recognized as president-elect. It was also looking like Georgia had elected two Democrats. The day has taken a very ugly and frightening turn.

I wish I could take credit for that title, but it's been all over the place... The year is nearly over, but the awfulness it brought will be with us for quite some time to come. There are so many aspects of 2020 that I would like to say goodbye

There are cities, actual cities, with fewer people in them than have now died in the US alone from COVID-19. And it isn't close to over.

Here we are nine months into the pandemic, with yet another holiday stolen from us by the virus. My family, like so many others around the country, is not really in agreement about how to have a safe celebration. For my own part, the four of us will be celebrating

Joe Biden won the election, that's good; but Trump refuses to leave office, that's bad; a covid vaccine has been approved by the FDA, that's good; but it will be many months before it is widely available and cases are skyrocketing, that's bad; the kids are doing ok with remote

Nothing horrible happened today, I mean aside from all the horrible things that happen every day now. But nothing new horrible happened today. It remains to be seen what this coming week will bring, but for now I am happy that I got to spend today with family celebrating my

It looks like the counting is nearly over, and Biden/Harris have won. All the news outlets are reporting it, and it seems like a done deal. It is a huge and critical victory, Harris is a historic vp-elect and Biden will be a terrific president. So why am I

I love Halloween, it might be my favorite holiday, or certainly way up there. This year was always going to be weird - with the coronavirus, trick-or-treating was off the table from the get-go and we couldn't have an indoor party or anything like that, but we still thought that

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” I was saying to my wife the other day that I felt like even if all we had to deal with was the coronavirus, and even if it was being managed sensibly, it would be an impossible load

My knee is not really getting much better. I've been kind-of babying it for a couple of months hoping that it would start healing a little more, but that hasn't really helped. My doctor had me get another MRI (I have had so many by now that if I get

Ok, so I'll be up-front and say that I think this hybrid schooling idea is for the birds. IMHO it's a terrible compromise that gives us the worst of both worlds and puts students and teachers at risk for very minimal benefit. In our town, hybrid learning is a two-and-a-half

The COVID numbers in Massachusetts are getting worse. Like a lot worse. We had been in the low 200s in August and most of September. Yesterday was 700+. Somehow though the governor still thinks it's appropriate to push to open schools, to increase the limit on gatherings, and to allow

So I ended up with nearly two pages of signatures on that letter, with more still trickling in. I sent it to the principals, the administrators, and the school committee. The response has been tremendous. The superintendent said that he had sent the letter on to the entire faculty and

I've been really frustrated by a small but very vocal group of parents who are agitating for the schools to open in-person. Their premise seems to be that the pandemic is overblown and that remote schooling is all some grand conspiracy by lazy teachers and overly powerful teachers unions. (Anyone

Today was Yom Kippur, a day set aside for atonement and contemplation. I fasted as usual, which was easier this year than sometimes. I also attended services, via Zoom. I really like our rabbi, and he didn't disappoint this year. I sadly missed a good chunk of his sermon, but