From Serial Killer to Global Pandemic and Everything In Between

  I love the beach, but Rande does not. He cannot stand a vacation where he sits around, soaking up the sun, reading books, and listening to waves. So, we don't get to go very often, and when we do, I worry about him being miserable.  However, one thing that we both love is Jimmy Buffett. He represents the promise of a beautiful life (or vacation) on the beach. So, for a few hours at a Jimmy Buffett concert, I could escape to the beach (or my Margaritaville, as Jimmy would call it) and have a good time with my husband and tens of thousands of other people.  Alas, we lost Jimmy last Labor Day weekend. As Labor Day weekend approaches this year, I am really missing Jimmy. No, I didn't know him personally. But our annual trek to a concert was always the highlight of our year. At each tailgate party, we dressed like parrot heads, drank like parrot heads, and sang like parrot heads. In effect, we experienced our own Margaritaville. Jimmy told us to keep the party going, but it is har

I’ve read many teacher posts about their “official” retirement this week. I got to thinking: When is a teacher’s official retirement? Is it the day you turn in your keys and walk out the door, or is it the first day the buses roll in the fall?  For me, it was that day that I gave my classroom keys to the teacher who would be in my room next year. I got there early because I wanted one last look at my room. I needed that sense of closure. But he had already started to make that room his own. It wasn’t my room to say goodbye to anymore. It was a new room to welcome a new future.  That first few days of summer, I just relaxed. I slept in until 8 or later, read books, sat in the sunshine and read books, and spent time at the lake. I was so exhausted from the school year that those first few days didn’t feel like retirement. Even the retirement luncheon, which should have felt like a rite of passage, didn’t feel final.  However, the day my email stopped, and the account was closed, I felt t