Well, it’s the final weekend of the summer. As an “essential service”, it’s back into the actual classroom. You’ve no doubt heard stories in your own region about people freaking out about cohort groups, expanded bubbles and COVID clusters. We have them here too. And while most of my colleagues are “virtual” for the month of September – teachers in school; students at home – I will have actual kids in the classroom since I work with at-risk learners that require one-to-one contact.

I have to say that I am looking forward to it.

Maybe it’s been the relative isolation I’ve lived in for the last five months, but I’ve physically dealt with relatively few groups of people since this whole thing started. I probably just need the interaction with people that aren’t my immediate family.

I went in Thursday to set up my classroom:

• ten tables – down from 15
• ten chairs – down from 30
• all the sanitation products a germophobe could ever want
• an entrance & exit plan to minimize student-to-student contact
• where to store my tea kettle & cookies – so I don’t have to use the staffroom

I’m hoping it will be quite civilized. I’m predicting that it will all be shot to hell by week two.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Vegas vs. Dallas – 8:00PM | NBC / Sportsnet
• NBA:
  • Rockets vs. Lakers – 8:30PM | ABC / TSN4
• MLB:
  • Cardinals at Cubs – 7:00PM | ESPN / TSN2
    • Question: Can this intolerable rivalry be made tolerable without fans?
• Left turns:
  • NASCAR Cup Series:
    • Southern 500 – 6:00PM | NBCSN / TSN5
    • It’s no Truck Roadeo, but it’ll do.

• Pugilism:
  • FOX PBC Fight Night:
    • Yordenis Ugas vs. Abel Ramos (welterweights) – 8:00PM | FOX
• MLS:
  • Inter Miami CF vs. Nashville SC – 8:00PM | FS1
  • Seattle vs. Portland – 10:00PM | TSN3
  • LA Galaxy vs. LAFC – 10:30PM | TSN2

For a Sunday evening, that’s a pretty full docket. Well done, COVID!