College Football and COVID-19 and the MAC

As we approach the middle of the summer, in most years I would begin to pay more attention to college football. It is my second favorite sport, after college basketball, and I love its pageantry and intensity. As the cool fall weather moves in, it seems the perfect sport with helmeted, and armor-clad (of sorts) gladiators clashing in front of thousands of excited fans.

I really enjoy watching the big boys of the sport battle it out in packed stadiums in places like Columbus and Tuscaloosa. I also enjoy the spectacle of the marching bands, cheerleaders and the crazed fans dressed in the colors of their school.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I fear there will not be any college football this year. The so-called “Power Five” schools in the major conferences (Big Ten, Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Southeast and Pac-12) will lose millions in revenue because of empty stadiums and cancelled lucrative television contracts. It will hurt, but most of them are large enough to absorb the losses for a single season. The schools that will really suffer if the season is cancelled are the so-called “Group of Five” schools that make up the bottom tier of Division I college football.

One of the five conferences in the Group of Five is the Mid-American Conference (MAC) which includes my alma mater, Miami University and the school where I worked and taught for 30 years, the University of Akron. While MAC schools play in the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) of the NCAA’s Division I along with the Power Five schools, most MAC schools don’t compare in terms of revenue, fan base and attendance with the big schools.

Ohio State routinely draws over 100,000 fans to each game to the “Horseshoe” on the banks of the Olentangy River in Columbus. In contrast, most MAC schools don’t draw that many fans in a home season of six games. OSU’s annual athletic budget of $205 million in 2018 was six times greater than the annual athletic budget of about $35 million for UA.

Licensing of merchandise, ticket sales and income from television of Ohio State’s football games provides enough money to support the university’s entire athletic program. About two-thirds of the University of Akron’s annual athletic budget comes from campus activity fees that each UA student pays every semester—the rest coming from ticket sales, licensing of merchandise, concessions, parking fees and broadcast rights.

In order to remain in Division I-FBS, member schools need have an average “attendance” of at least 15,000 per home game at least once every two years. Actually, the requirement is for tickets sold and at some MAC schools, the university further subsidizes the football program by purchasing additional tickets to make the limit and then gives them away in the community. Many MAC schools miss the actual 15,000 attendance mark for most home games.

Also, every MAC school schedules two or three “money” games each season against Power Five schools that provide a six- or seven-figure paycheck. The MAC’s Kent State football team is scheduled to play three games at Penn State, Kentucky and Alabama in 2020 and will receive $4.5 million in guaranteed income. This amounts to more than 15 percent of the school’s total athletic budget for the year. According to Crain’s Cleveland Business, the 12 MAC schools receive about 68 percent of their athletic budgets from student fees.

In the MAC and many of the other Group of Six schools, football is a money loser that needs additional funding from the school to continue—mostly in the form of student fees and tickets purchased. NCAA rules also stipulate that schools may offer up to 85 full scholarships for football but they can’t be divided among more than one athlete. Schools routinely give partial scholarships to athletes in other sports like track and field, baseball, volleyball, softball and so on.

So, what’s the point here? The point is that the COVID-19 pandemic will deal a serious blow to MAC schools that will have to pay the scholarships for the football players and other athletes even if the season is cancelled. Also, nine of the 12 members of the MAC are located in Ohio and Michigan, two states with stagnant population growth and less than stellar economies. These state-supported schools are facing declining enrollments due to a drop in the number of high school graduates and their budgets are being rocked by the effects of the pandemic.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has ordered state-supported schools to cut their budgets by 20 percent for the upcoming school year. If the pandemic lasts into 2021, then there will be more budget cuts for the next school year.

I think it is time for the members of the MAC to consider moving their football programs to the Football Championship Series of Division I. The savings would be significant. First, FCS programs are limited to 63 football scholarships and have no minimum attendance requirement. Also, there are smaller coaching staffs and lower travel costs with fewer athletes. Such a move would save the University of Akron over $2 million per year in scholarship costs alone. There also would be other savings by not buying “phantom” tickets to meet the attendance requirement. And there could be savings by reductions in athletic department staffs.

It would also reduce the some of the embarrassing losses that MAC teams suffer at the hands of Power Five schools in the first two or three weeks of the season. While there are always a few signature wins over big schools by MAC football teams in these “money” games, the majority of the time, the only consolation for MAC schools is the size of the check they bring home after being blown out.

On Oct. 20, 1990, the UA Zips football team travelled to Gainesville, FL, to play the Florida Gators of the Southeastern Conference. Akron lost 59-0 and reportedly six players suffered season-ending injuries in that game. These money games are often a travesty and some season ticket holders for major college programs wonder why they should pay for these games.

On Sept. 20, 1966, Miami University defeated Indiana of the Big Ten by a score of 20-10 on the road. I was a freshman at MU and had finished my second week of class. That sunny Saturday afternoon, I was hanging out with new acquaintances in the East Quad. We played some touch football and mostly enjoyed the beautiful weather and attempted to de-stress from our first semester in college.

Suddenly, word began to spread that Miami’s football team was leading Indiana in the second half. One student moved his radio next to an open window and dozens of us listened as Miami’s announcers described the end of the game. Dozens of us headed for nearby Miami Field to try to take down the goal posts and march uptown with them. When we arrived, the Miami Police department had opened the gates of the stadium and one officer on a bullhorn was giving instructions on how to lift the goal posts out or the ground to minimize damage.

Hundreds of students marched up High Street carrying the goal posts to the center of Oxford. I helped lean one of the goal posts against the front of the Purity, then the most popular bar in town. At four in the afternoon, the bars lining High Street were packed and the party went on late into the evening. It was a great display of school spirit.

Fast forward more that 50 years, and most MAC teams are no longer competitive with Power Five teams. And most MAC members are in states with diminished numbers of high school students and poor economic prospects for the next couple of years. When schools are being forced to cut academic programs and reduce faculty and staff, a voluntary reduction to step down to the FCS division for football would be a good political and economic move on most campuses. It’s time for the MAC schools to consider it.

The Beautiful Day

“It's a beautiful day

Don't let it get away

It's a beautiful day”

--from the song by U2

It was a beautiful day—the best day I’ve had in about three months. On March 16, I returned from my winter sabbatical in Henderson, NV. I have been self-quarantined at home with only an occasional drive through the farm lands of western Portage County or the nearby Cuyahoga Valley National Park to break the monotony. I also make an occasional trip to a nearby state-licensed liquor store to get another bottle of bourbon.

But, this day was different. The weather forecast predicted a sunny, warm day with virtually no chance of rain. So, Pam and I decided to go to our favorite beach in Vermilion, OH, on the south shore of Lake Erie. It takes a little over an hour for us to drive to this quaint beach town that is about 35 miles west of Cleveland.

Vermilion was founded in 1837 and has become a summer resort town of about 11,000 with numerous boat docks and condos lining the lagoon where the Vermilion River empties into Lake Erie. It has a quaint park in the center of town and if you follow Main Street about three blocks north you arrive at the Main Street Beach on Lake Erie.

It’s not a large beach, the public part is only a few hundred yards wide, but there is free parking along Main Street. There is a small replica of a lighthouse at the west end of the beach in front of a building that used to house a museum about the Great Lakes that has since moved to Toledo.

The day we arrived, the beach was fairly crowded with mostly families and a few younger couples. Fortunately, we were able to find a spot that allowed us to keep more than six feet of separation. I set up our beach umbrella and we unfolded our beach chairs and settled in.

The sky was nearly cloudless and gentle waves lapped up on the beach. Because it was mid-week, there wasn’t a great amount of boat traffic, but I did notice several boats enter and exit the lagoon harbor entrance about a half mile east of the beach.

There were a few people on kayaks a couple of hundred yards from shore and a rider on a jet-ski whizzed by during our two hours on the beach. Near the water a few kids played with toy buckets and shovels digging holes in the sand and making sand castles. One teenaged boy came out of the water holding a three-foot wide inflatable raft that looked like the face of a cat.

I always enjoy this beach because of the laid-back atmosphere. I enjoy just relaxing, reading a book, listening to music in my iPod and soaking up the atmosphere. This beach is the exact opposite of the crowded resort area beaches I have visited on the east coast and Gulf of Mexico.

Towards the end of our stay, about a dozen high school kids showed up to join several girls who were already there. The noise level increased markedly as the group talked and laughed close to where we were sitting. They decided to go further down the beach and we packed up our stuff for the ride home. In these tense times, it was great to see a group of kids having fun. It was normal.

We have visited this beach at least a couple of times during the last several summers, but this visit was particularly enjoyable. I realized how much I had missed just being around people. Because we were outside, there was a gentle breeze and people were not getting too close to each other, I didn’t feel concerned about being exposed to the COVID-19 virus.

As we rode home with the sunroof and windows open, we both remarked what a great day this had been. Yes, it was a beautiful day.

The Cruel, Cruel Summer

“It's a cruel, (cruel), cruel summer

(Leaving me) leaving me here on my own

It's a cruel, (it's a cruel), cruel summer

Now you're gone…”

--recorded by Bananarama, 1983

This is shaping up to be once of the cruelest summers I have every experienced and a lot of you can probably say the same thing. Thankfully, so far our family has avoided the cruelest fate of all this year, the COVID-19 pandemic. Ever since mid-March, we have been sheltering in place at our house.

Because I am over 70 and have a history of asthma and pneumonia, I am in the high-risk category. So, the only times I have gone out have been to take a short drive and stop occasionally at a drive through to pick up something to eat. Pam and I are fortunate that our son Brian is available to run errands for us and we purchase most of our groceries online using curbside pickup.

But, last Friday was “Black Friday” for a couple of reasons that made me even more depressed about the upcoming summer. First of all, we had several snow squalls on Thursday including one that left about a one-inch layer of wet, slushy snow on the ground on Friday morning. Not a big deal for us during the winter, by this is May! This snowfall tied the all-time record in Akron for the latest measurable snowfall.

Since I moved to Northeast Ohio in 1975, this is the first time I can remember we had a measurable snowfall in May. So that means, I’ve seen measurable snow here in eight of the 12 months of the year. Only June through September have been spared.

It has been much cooler and wetter than average from mid-April until nearly mid-May and the lack of good weather is contributing to my worsening case of cabin fever. It seems as if the clock has turned backwards and we are moving through March not May.

The other depressing thing is that the Cleveland Orchestra announced on Friday, May 9, that it is cancelling the summer season at Blossom Music Center. This world-class orchestra and concert venue has provided me with some of the best concerts I’ve ever attended. I was eagerly awaiting the opportunity to have a picnic dinner with Pam and friends on the lawn before hearing some great music.

Blossom is only about a 15-minute drive from our house and we have usually attended four or five concerts there each summer for the last 20 years or so. But, this summer the stage will be dark and the only sounds will be the birds chirping and the wind whistling through the trees and the empty pavilion.

Also, I usually attend about a half-dozen Akron Rubberducks baseball games each season in downtown Akron with a group of friends. We buy a couple of books of ticket vouchers and pick games as the season goes along. Our favorite night is “Thirsty Thursday” with two-dollar beers.  It’s a lot of fun to hang out with a bunch of friends on a warm summer evening sipping a cold brew and enjoying baseball. Although the season hasn’t been cancelled yet, my money says it will be.

At this writing, nearly every summer event in Northeast Ohio including concerts, festivals and the like, has been cancelled. As the weather improves, I’m hoping to be able to meet friends outside where we can practice social distancing.

Because this summer is our 50^th anniversary, Pam and I were planning a major trip to to Europe or possibly Asia to celebrate. Those plans are now in the dumpster. I didn’t want to risk flying home from Las Vegas in March, so I definitely won’t risk spending twice as much time in an airplane to travel overseas.

I hope we can take some short day trips later this summer if conditions improve, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, stay well and best wishes to all of you.   

Covid-19 Quarantine Top Ten

The first coronavirus stay-at-home order in Ohio was issued about five weeks ago and it has changed a lot of things. From the home office in Stow, Ohio, here are the top ten things I’ve experienced because of the quarantine:

10. Did I take a shower yesterday? Or was it the day before? Or was it even longer?

9. I have forgotten how to button a shirt.

8. “Social Distancing” also could refer to my high school years.

7. Hair, hair, hair!!!

6. Need to recharge my phone battery twice a day because I’m using it so much.

5. “TGIF” has been replaced by “TGFN”…Thank God for Netflix.

4. Discovered that I don’t need to wear pants when “Zooming” with my relatives

3. Once this is over, I’m going to need to “flatten the curve” on my gut.

2. I’m spending so much time on my front porch, I’m thinking of taking up whittling. (If you live in the South, you know what that means.)

1. My new best friend is Evan Williams (Bourbon!)

Notes from Quarantine

Like much of the country, Pam, Brian and I are under a stay at home order issued by our state’s governor. As I write this, Ohio’s current order is scheduled to expire on May 1 and Governor Mike DeWine will be announcing new regulations early next week. I have been home for about six weeks since my truncated winter sabbatical in Henderson, NV, and I have been pretty much housebound since then.

I have experience with a health-related quarantine. During the summer of 1952 when I was four years old, our family was quarantined for about a month when I contracted Pertussis, a.k.a., Whooping Cough. I had been vaccinated for this disease, but it was only about 60-70 percent effective back then and I was one of those for whom the vaccine did not work.

In June, my family was spending the day at the swimming pool at the Officers Club at the Army’s Defense Supply Center in Columbus, Ohio. My dad served in the Army during World War II and continued in the reserves after that. So, we could use the facilities at the base that included the club, a golf course and the swimming pool.

I was playing in the pool that day when a kid next to me vomited on me. My mom ordered me out of the pool and my dad took me into the locker room to take a hot, soapy shower.

A few days later, I developed a fever and a horrible cough. The diagnosis of our family doctor was Whooping Cough and my family and I spent the next month in quarantine. I still remember the red notice from the city health department taped to our front door and having to spend the summer inside our non-air conditioned house on the east side of Columbus.

More than 30 years later when Pam and I adopted our son Brian in Honduras, he got sick a couple of days before we were scheduled to bring him home with us. He spent four days in the La Policlinica Hospital in Tegucigalpa before he was well enough to travel home. We had him examined by an infectious disease specialist at Akron Children’s Hospital. Ironically, his diagnosis was Whooping Cough.

This particular stay at home order doesn’t bother me too much. I only leave the house for an occasional drive through the nearby Cuyahoga Valley National Park or a walk on the bike-hike trail that runs behind our house. Because I am at high risk due to my age and chronic asthma, we are lucky that Brian can run errands for us.

This morning, I attended a wedding. Not in person, of course, but I watched a former co-worker of mine get married in a service that was streamed online. The current quarantine regulations limit to 10 the number of people at an event, so the church was pretty empty. I was able to see the wedding online from my favorite living room chair dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants and sipping a cup of coffee. I must admit it was much more comfortable than dressing up and going to a church and then a reception. Although, it could have been more fun if there was an open bar at the reception!

Another unusual event occurred about two weeks ago on the Saturday before Easter. I heard a siren coming down our street and I looked out the window to see a police cruiser followed by a fire chief’s SUV with a person wearing an Easter Bunny costume sticking out of the sunroof and waving. Then came a Jeep with the Bulldog Mascot of Stow High School in the back waving and another city vehicle with lights flashing at the end of this makeshift parade. It wasn’t the Tournament of Roses parade, but it added a light moment to the day.

My final observation about the coronavirus quarantine is about groceries. When the stay-at-home order first took effect, we sent Brian to the store with a detailed list and he came home with most of what we wanted. Since then, Pam has ordered groceries online for curbside pickup.

The first time a local grocery chain botched our order big time and when Pam and Brian got home from picking up the groceries, she discovered that about half the items were totally wrong. She called the store and they told her to keep the wrong items and she and Brian went back and picked up most of the items that were missing.

The next time, she ordered a long list of items from a larger regional grocery chain and we ended up getting most of what we ordered. Last night, we ordered carryout from a local restaurant and they got the order right and the food was very good.

Meanwhile, my package of six reusable face masks arrived and I am hoping to be able to use them to go a few places when the governor’s revised coronavirus orders take effect next week. I miss spending a couple of hours in a coffee shop with my computer and researching and writing about whatever I want. I’m also look forward to meeting friends for coffee at a restaurant with outside seating or at a park and keeping acceptable social distance while we talk.

Pam and I have agreed that a trip to a vacation spot is probably out of the question this summer, but I hope we can take some interesting day trips where it isn’t too crowded. However, I won’t feel really safe until the scientists develop a vaccine and a treatment to effectively mitigate COVID-19. In the meantime, we’ll have to wait for the next set of directives and see whether officials think the coronavirus numbers are trending downward enough to ease the lockdown.

Even with the inconvenience of the quarantine, we are doing much better than people who who are battling this dreaded disease or have lost their jobs. I think about them and pray for them every day.

I wish all of you good health and hope you can keep your spirits up during these trying times.

We’ll see you next time.

The Lost Summer

As I write this, there are still almost two weeks left in April, but it looks like the summer of 2020 could very well be a lost summer because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2016, I wrote about nostalgia because I attended the 50-year reunion of my high school graduation class that summer and I experienced a couple of other events that evoked strong memories of my earlier days: https://ccollin48.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-nostalgic-summer.html

My wife Pam and I are conscientiously observing the stay at home directive issued by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine because of our age and my susceptibility to COVID-19 because I have moderate to severe asthma. So, it looks like our special summer could be much less than I expected.

Governor DeWine says some things may open up around May 1, but other things may not open up until later this year or early 2021. As for now, many stores and restaurants are closed with only what the state deems as essential businesses allowed to remain open. And, as the economy reopens, nearly every expert agrees that the last things to reopen will be events that draw large crowds like sporting events and concerts.

For me, this means that it it unlikely that our local baseball team the Akron Rubberducks will play this season. For the last several seasons, a group of friends and I have purchased ticket vouchers for the Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Our group attended about a half dozen games each year at Canal Park in downtown Akron.

We had a lot of fun on these warm summer nights enjoying baseball and each others company. We usually meet for dinner beforehand and then go to the game. The team has a promotion called “Thirsty Thursdays” and 20-ounce draft beers go for $2, so that’s a favorite night for us.

This is the same group of guys that I’ve played poker with once a month for the last 15 years or so and we’ve shelved that too. Most of us are around 70 years old and a couple of the guys also have some health issues, so we are all currently staying home and not gathering together.

The other thing that I will miss is the concerts at Blossom Music Center, the summer home of the world-famous Cleveland Orchestra. For the last 20 years of so, Pam and I have bought season tickets and been to some amazing concerts. Blossom is only about 15 minutes from our house and we enjoy getting carryout food and enjoying it on the lawn before the concerts.

Last summer we enjoyed a concert version of the rock opera “Tommy” featuring the Who’s Roger Daltrey. The season closed with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus performing “Carmina Burana” and I will never forget the prolonged standing ovation at the end of that performance by the crowd of 15,000 spectators.

This summer also was supposed to be full of nostalgia as Pam and I celebrated two milestone events.

This summer is our 50^th wedding anniversary as we were married on August 8, 1970, in North Canton, Ohio. Late last fall and early this year we talked about taking a trip this summer to celebrate to either Europe or the Far East including Japan, China and Thailand. Then, in late February, the emergence of the coronavirus made us temper out plans. Now, the possibility of a major trip this year is extremely remote.

Pam pointed out that if we take this trip in the spring of 2021, that will still be in the 50^th year of our marriage and I hope the coronavirus will be under control by then.

The other major event we looked forward to was Alumni Weekend at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Each year in mid-June Miami invites alumni to return to campus for a weekend of fun events. As graduates of the class of 1970, Pam and I would have been part the 50-year reunion class that is specially honored each year. We were looking forward to seeing some long-time friends from our college days. Miami is a special place for Pam and I because we met there at the end of sophomore year and became what the school calls a “Miami Merger.”

However, we received an email several weeks ago saying that Alumni Weekend has been cancelled this year because of the pandemic.

So, it seems like everything is on hold. Because of our age and my health condition, we don’t want to take any chances. So, we will likely stay very close to home this summer, unless there is a radical change in the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. As the weather improves, I hope we can take some short trips to enjoy the summer weather, but that will depend on the perceived threat of COVID-19.

In the meantime, I hope you stay healthy and stay tuned for more…

The COVID-19 Conundrum

The last few weeks have been among the strangest of my life and I’m sure I’m not alone. As the Coronavirus ravages the health of the world and gazillions of words have been written about it, I thought it might be therapeutic to write about my experiences of the last few weeks. So, to paraphrase the Grateful Dead song, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.”

When I last wrote, I had just returned home from my winter sabbatical in Henderson, NV, a suburb of Las Vegas. The first few weeks of my visit were pretty good as I checked out some spectacular sites like Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyon and Death Valley. I started taking some non-credit classes at UNLV and getting to know the city.

By late February, I began to get more concerned about the news reports concerning the spread of the Coronavirus throughout the US and the world. After all, Las Vegas is a major tourist destination and an estimated 40 million people from all over the US and many from other countries visit each year. Vegas also hosts hundreds of conventions and trade shows every year.

I was concerned about going out to places that were crowded and getting ill while I was away from home. I decided to leave 17 days early and drive home, even though I had a return flight reservation on Southwest. I figured that between the $450 extra it cost to change my car rental so I could drive it to Ohio and three nights in motels, meals and gas the total would be close to $1,000 and it was. But, I would be alone during the trip avoiding a crowded airplane, airports and restaurants.

The week I got home, Ohio was one of the first states go on virtual lockdown as Governor Mike DeWine ordered schools, restaurants, bars and sporting events to shut down as well as nearly any other activity that would draw more than 10 people at one time.

Because I am over 70 and have a history of asthma and respiratory issues, I am considered to be in the high-risk category for contracting the disease. So, I am spending nearly all of my time at home and missing out on my weekly workouts at my fitness center, coffee or lunches with friends and my monthly poker sessions. I also miss friends I see each week at church.

What’s my daily schedule like now? When I first get up, I make sure to get the coffee pot going or heat up coffee from the previous day. Since neither Pam nor Brian drink it, a pot lasts me two days. Then I go out to the mailbox to get the Akron Beacon Journal. A confession here, first, I still read an old-fashioned newspaper and, second, I usually go out to the mailbox out at the curb in pajama bottoms and a coat.

After my first cup of java (I wonder why that’s a nickname for coffee), I make some breakfast and a second cup of coffee and look at the web and messages on my phone. Then, I try to think about the rest of my day. I might go down to the basement and use my exercycle or do some work with a set of weight bands I own.

In normal times, I would head over to Akron General Lifestyles to work out a couple of days a week, but that facility is closed for who knows how long. On days I don’t exercise, I surf the web on my laptop to get more news or checkup on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. or do some reading.

Right now I am reading “Douglas MacArthur, American Warrior” by Arthur Herman published in 2016. I like historical biographies and this one is an interesting profile that mixes personal details about his life and great details about his wartime actions.

If the weather is nice, I may go for a short walk after lunch or take a drive. My two favorite routes are through the Cuyahoga National Recreation Area or travel east from my house through the farmland in Portage County. Then, it’s time for my afternoon nap of 15-30 minutes—one of the perks of being retired.

A lot of people are binge-watching on Netflix or one of the other streaming services. While I was in Vegas I started watching “Peaky Blinders” on Netflix, the story of gang warfare in Birmingham, England after World War I and into the 1920s. “Peaky Blinders” is extremely violent and contains a lot of references to the Irish and Gypsy origins of the gang in the title. The story follows their battles with other gangs of various ethnic origins and the rise of the Communists in 1920s England.

As a counter point, I started to watch “Cheers” the hit sitcom of the early 1990s and the antithesis of “Peaky.” After I got home, I watched the third season of “Ozark” on Netflix and continued to watch “Cheers.”

When late afternoon approaches, it’s Happy Hour and my current drink of choice is Evan Williams Kentucky bourbon. Occasionally, I’ll have rum and Coke, but “Evan” has become my real Coronavirus friend. In March, according to the Ohio Department of Liquor Control, sales of hard liquor in the state were 50-percent more than for March, 2019. So, a lot of other Ohioans have new “friends” too.

After dinner, Pam and I search for a movie to watch on Netflix or Amazon Prime. She is continuing to teach a beginning accounting course online at the University of Akron, so she sometimes has to work on her class. Like most colleges and universities, UA has gone almost completely online and that has been an adjustment for her.

Fortunately, the textbook she is using is online and it has a lot of tools for assignments and tests. Also, to keep her connected, she went to training with the people I used to work with at UA and learned how to record lectures online that include her voice and her PowerPoint slides.

Meanwhile, I have cleaned up my home office a bit and am contemplating other tasks to use time at home. I want to take another Improvisational acting class, but that will have to wait awhile like a lot of other things. Mostly, I am looking forward to better weather so I can spend more time outside on our deck.

Here’s hoping you stay healthy and safe until we meet again.