Well, well, and more wells. Here we are in Memorial Day weekend, and it’s gonna be one o’ the strangest holidays we’ve seen here since forever. With the Wuhan Virus still besetting the state, and only in Phase I of the “reopening” under the diktat of His Excellency the Governor, it’s gonna be a very quiet and different celebration.
The Mystick Maidens of the Marsh have perty much canceled this year’s gala celebration, much like everything else. None o’ the gals wanna be perched near a marsh during the illness, but more than that, there’s nothing else goin’ on. The parade is canceled, and the decoration of the various memorials and graves are halted as well, to be done at a later date.
Cobina knows of a few families who’re gonna git together, but it’s gonna be with social distancing and only a few people. This year will not have the big cookouts we’ve seen, nor are the restaurants gonna be expecting big crowds – though on that score who knows.
Sammy Bluejay sent the notice that the city will allow restaurants to open with outdoor service. That’s a good thing to help the ailing businesses get back on track. In fack, the city has been good enuff to waive the permit fee. Sammy pernted out in other cities they are actually blocking off streets and allowing the them to be used for restaurants.
Heck if they tried that here, Campbell Avenue would be closed from one end to the other. Remember, there are more restaurants and bars along that stretch than pert near anywhere else in the state. Still, the fack that there will be restaurants allowed outdoor service, Cobina has a hunch it’s gonna be a busy time. The faster the better.
We hope the Chinese restaurants open up, too. A lot o’ them closed at the beginning of the virus cuz people stopped ordering from them – as if cuz of their ethnicity they were gonna have the virus. There’s no explaining the way some people thing. Many have been closed for eight weeks or more. Let’s hope they have a good opening as well.
~~~
Iva Lootey, meanwhile, sez that the Boardwalk will open Friday, but that the walkers are gonna hafta keep social distancing, and wear masks. I doubt sunbathers or those using the beach will need to wear masks. That would make an interesting mark on people’s faces, though….I guess yew use a tanning lotion to fix the white squares that might result, who knows. Cobina ain’t been sunbathing since Mack Sennett had his Bathing Beauties – and she wore those types o’ suits.
Cobina has a question on masks. Remember, the parks were closed cuz some goody-good complained. When the people use the masks, and breath into them, let’s face it, they aren’t exactly sturdy. Most of the ones we’ve seen are what one guy called “coffee filters on elastic.” That perty much sums it up.
Tennyrate, people breathe into the masks, and in this warmer weather moisture is gonna collect on them, which will make the damp or wet. What’s the safety in that? One would think, and maybe I’m being too logical here, that a wet mask is like no mask atoll. The “droplets” everyone is so scared of, will be on the mask. Just asking….
~~~
Meanwhile, just moving along as effen there was not anything unusual, the City Council did itself proud this past little while, and put through the annual Budget Ordinance on time. The guys and gals did it according to the Charter timetable, even though the governor said in an executive order — don’t ask me the number — that they could have until near the end o’ June.
The budget as passed had some very interesting tales in its run up to the vote. It seems the council was able, unlike councils of the past, to make alterations in the budget, and did it normally on U Nanny Mouse votes of 13-0. The charter calls for the famous “super-majority” of nine, which in the past has not exactly been easy to achieve. So, the city has seen some budgets go through verbatim cuz the changes could not be agreed upon. Not this time.
The panel wanted to make cuts so that the hike in the mill rate wouldn’t be the suggested .80. They whittled it down to .58, by making almost $600,000 in cuts. Then came the bureaucrats. Y’see, the state boys wanna see the mill rate git up to 40 come hell, high water or the atom bomb. Soo, when it was found out that the cuts were made, the state said that any budget that doesn’t show a .80 increase was DOA.
So, the last meeting was spent putting money in this line item or that line item, with the goal of putting the money where it would do the most good, particularly rainy day funds, ets. It was the end of a very different kind of budget review.
Don’t git Cobina started on the Hartford cabal. What they lack in skill they make up in lack of humanity. They just see dollars and sense, and not the damage they cause. Meanwhile, the state is run like it is with the deficits it has. Go figger.
~~~
Nelly Nuthatch came in and sez that with the Governor ending the school year setch as he did, the school system, here and elsewhere, are looking to let the kids git their stuff – y’know the stuff left in lockers – and looking to finish the year with grades and other stuff.
Natchurly, the problem of grades came up, and yew can read Neil Cavallaro’s ideas on that. Yew hafta give it them, they really did get this distance learning thing up and running perty quickly. And, tho’ it ain’t as good as the kids being there in person, people are saying in some ways it was harder for the kids cuz they had to do more individual work – that’s never a bad thing.
Still, there are other things that hafta be considered. Graduation is a big deal all over the country, and our little berg is coming up with the idea of a drive-in graduation. The logistics haven’t been totally figgered out, yet, but it’s an attempt to give the young men and women as much of a graduation as can be done in this time and place.
And, I hear that the prom has been moved to the summer. That’s good, the kids should have their one night as a class. Sometimes even Cobina is a softy.
~~~
What’s gonna happen next year is still up in the air, we’re hearing. Some people expeck that the governor ain’t gonna let schools open before Sept. 1.
That’s only a few days beyond when they normally open up over the last decade or so. Heck, we didn’t open till after Labor Day.
Thing is we hear fall activities, like sports and things like that might hafta wait until schools open cuz there is gonna be a time to see effen in-person classes cause a rise in virus cases. Once that’s established fall activities may begin again, we’re told.
How that is gonna play out is anyone’s guess. Nobody really knows what’s gonna happen, and whether things are gonna work out the way the plans are set up. That’s been the only given: nothing is set in stone. We shall see as they transpire, I guess.
~~~
With that bit o’ chatter, I’ll close this time till next, mitt luff und kizzez,