“Ruining” is not too strong of a word to describe what the shutdown of in-classroom instruction is doing to our kids and grandkids

Here are some of the ways that the Fairfax County, Virginia school board and its superintendent are hurting our children by their ineptitude and failure to follow the science.

School officials all across the country have become science deniers by ignoring the research that children are suffering short- and long-term damage–making that crippling–from being shut out of classrooms.

Let you voice be heard.

Redesigned for 2020, the Highlander Hybrid is in its fourth generation and now uses a four-cylinder engine, replacing a V6. The step-down in power is noticeable but fuel economy is improved. Not many differences for this year, although two inches longer, the Highlander adds a few inches to the cargo area.

There are of course, pros and cons for all vehicles driven. In the 2020 Highlander Hybrid the engine is louder than expected and somewhat less refined. Although for the most part, smooth. Choices are mind-boggling, but for those buyers who know what they want and must have, perhaps it isn’t such a drawn-out process.

The obvious pluses of the Highlander include strong fuel economy, estimated at 35-36 mpg, fair pricing in the non-Hybrid versions, AWD offered for all trim levels and plenty of standard and available features.

The ride in the Highlander Hybrid is as expected in a Toyota product. This is a large vehicle, yet handling is smooth. Available height levels on the driver’s seat make it possible for all size of driver to be accommodated, and to feel in control.

Also new for the 2020 Highlander Hybrid is a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine replacing last year’s V6. This new four-cylinder hybrid system generates roughly 60 fewer horsepower than the previous model, fuel economy improves by 7-8 mpg in mixed driving. A newly available front-wheel-drive configuration adds to the potential fuel savings.

There are several other vehicles out there today to compete with the Highlander. Many buyers gravitate to Toyota for obvious reasons: more cargo space, more safety features and more power, to name just a few. Dependability, of course. For those who want to compare, take a look at Ford Explorer or Expedition, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda Passport, Subaru Ascent, Dodge Durango, Mazda CX-9, Toyota 4Runner, Chevy Traverse and/or VW Atlas.

Nissan no longer sells a hybrid Pathfinder, the Mitsubishi Outlander is much smaller, and the new Kia Telluride does not offer a Hybrid version. The Explorer comes with a higher price, lower fuel economy in their V6 with 318 combined horsepower. With Highlander, you’ll get excellent feel in the brakes, interior space that’s abundant.

It’s easy to get spoiled with a Toyota product, and there are a lot of good choices today in every category. Toyota is offering a $2,000 rebate now on the 2020 Highlander.
Depending on time of year you buy and how quickly you need to make a decision, one can choose from several Highlander versions. End-of-year pricing is usually fair.

The LE and XLE are good choices, both with a lot of features and at a reasonable price point. The Hybrid Limited offers several upgrades, including leather, heated and ventilated front seats, and parking sensors. With four trim levels from which to choose, the Hybrid version can be had for a fair price. Seating for 8 is standard on the LE version. The XLE, Limited and Platinum have standard second-row captain’s chairs, reducing the seating total to seven.

As those interested in a hybrid often know, you are paying more than you are for any of the standard gas engine versions. You’ll also be losing horsepower which isn’t terribly noticeable or concerning, particularly for hybrid owners. No one ever bought a three-row minivan or SUV for speed.

When opting for the Highlander equipped with a standard engine, you’ll get a 295 hp, V-6, held over from the previous generation model. This is a smooth riding engine with plenty of power, and paired with the 8-speed transmission.

SPECS:

Pricing: $50,200 plus shipping
Engine: combined net hp: 186, 5,000 rpm., 4-cylinder ECVT Hybrid
Transmission: electronically controlled ECVT w/sequential shift mode. Power-assisted rack and pinion steering, CVT
Power-assisted ventilated disc brakes w/ECB system, integrated regenerative braking
Electric power steering. Power
Fuel economy: 35/34/35
Fuel Tank Cap: 17.1 gal.
Length: 194.9 in.
Width: 76.0 in.
Height: 68.1 in.
Wheelbase: 112.2 in.
Tires: P235/55R20M
Towing: 3,500 lbs.
Seating Capacity: 7
Weight: 4,595

(Photos: George Straton, Roadblazing.com)

Dad: survived COVID-19 and for that I am grateful.

I know that this has been a year of great struggles, loss, and adjustment. So, my saying Happy Thanksgiving may seem inappropriate this year. But if you are reading this, I am grateful.

If you could think for a moment of all that you have done this year to protect yourself, to protect your family, to protect your neighbors and colleagues, I am grateful.

If you can realize a new empathy for others that you perhaps never understood before, never noticed before, perhaps took for granted before, I am grateful.

If your heart skips a beat when you hear the special voice in your life and you know then that they are okay, I am grateful.

If you have had to pray this year and found a return to a faith that you once knew but perhaps let fall to the wayside, I am grateful.

If you find yourself so moved by stories you read about others that a tear will flow from your once steadfast, disconnected heart, I am grateful.

If you have discovered a new craft, a new instrument, a paintbrush, a camera, or a new song, I am grateful.

If you have been made aware of the unconditional love from your pet that you never recognized before, I am grateful.

If you have brought that unconditional love from a pet into your life, I am grateful.

If you can now smile with your eyes because you are wearing a mask, I am grateful.

If you tested negative, I am grateful. If you tested positive and have endured, I am grateful and in awe of your strength.

If you have expressed your sorrow and shared your path of grief, I am aware now and I am grateful.

This has been an exercise of the heart and what we see is a newfound collective strength, and for that I am grateful.

Once the storm of isolation has passed, what a joy to see you again. The world welcomes the renaissance in you, and I am so grateful.

I give you thanks for all you have done. Happy Thanksgiving.

Jenga and Herman are adorable, easy-going, gentle four-year-old, bonded male guinea pigs looking for a loving guardian together.

These boys came to Friends of Petraits Rescue when their human didn’t feel like she had the time to care for them any longer.

Jenga is a neutered tri-colored Abyssinian guinea pig; Herman is a blond teddy bear guinea pig.

Jenga had been used as a young pig for training exercises so he was very accustomed to being handled and even knows some commands. Herman tries to maintain his dominance as an un-neutered male and occasionally humps poor easy-going Jenga.

These boys are large, sweet and easy companions.

Guinea pigs eat a diet of unlimited Timothy and Orchard hays; a handful of guinea pig pellets, and fresh vegetables including romaine, red leaf and green leaf lettuces, cilantro, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, etc. Guinea pigs, similar to humans, can’t manufacture their own vitamin C, so they need to supplement their diet with red pepper and many other vitamin C-rich foods. They love their fresh foods.

Please read up on guinea pig care and diet before adopting by visiting this excellent web site http://www.guinealynx.info/.

They would love a home with people who will handle them daily, keep them well fed, their nails trimmed, and their habitat nice and clean.

If you’re interested in possibly adopting Jenga and Herman, please fill out an adoption application at https://friendsofpetraits.com/guinea-pig-adoption-application/.

They are being fostered in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

Their adoption fee of $70 as a pair benefits the Friends of Petraits Rescue. For an additional $75, we’ll include a package of absolutely everything you need to care for them including a large cage, pellets, hay, hidey huts and water bottle.

And, yes … Friends of Petraits is handling masked, minimum contact, socially distant adoptions.

This is my annual reprise of a favorite post. More than ever before, with the pandemic still raging and our emotions filtered behind a Zoom screen, it’s essential we let our loved ones know how dear they are to us.

This is not a headline about spiking the stuffing with a psychotropic. It’s about the focus of this blog, cheating death by doing the things that give life joy and meaning.

For me, of all the holidays we celebrate throughout the year, Thanksgiving is the one with the most sentimientos de alegria, feelings of joy that speak to the warm-blooded emotions that ironically are not typically associated with the prim Puritans and straitlaced Pilgrims who first celebrated the harvest.

Invariably what happens to me when sitting around the table laden with the bounty from Whole Foods and Marianos, my tinnitus turns into Willie Nelson singing “You are always on my mind” with a segue to “September Song.” I turn mawkishly nostalgic; there’s a tear in my eye as I take in the presence of my family (and lost friends, sadly absent chair and place service but still in the room). I suppress a sob as my wife, wise and caring woman, raises a glass and toasts to health, her quiet benediction giving thanks to a higher power for the blessings bestowed upon us.

Typically, the younger ones look at me oddly, wondering “what’s with the tears, Papa?” “Tears of joy,” I tell them. And ordinarily that would be enough said.

But this time I’m going to add something more. I’m not going to take it for granted that they know ‘I love them.’

I want them to see me, a good Instagram photo for sure, but infinitely deeper than the pixeled surface of my face. I want them to look deep into my heart where limitless, unconditional love resides, so years from now, they can conjure up my image when I too am absent chair and place setting, yet still in the room.

I want them to have a reflection of me that comes vividly to mind when their eyes are closed, and they take a deep breath, face their fear and plunge into a moment of time when the outcome is unknown. I want them to see me then, by their side, sensing my presence, emboldened by an intuitive awareness that they are not alone; heartened by the love we shared, love that lives on long after I am a memory.

It was not always thus.

There were occasions in my past when Thanksgiving was more Edward Munch than Norman Rockwell, more like the ironic quip from spirituality guru Ram Dass, “If you think you’re enlightened, go visit your family.” I’m reminded of gatherings when suddenly, without warning, we’d be triggered by some innocuous reference or inadvertent remark, taking umbrage at a fancied slight we thought we had gotten over years ago; unconsciously reverting to the role we once played as part of the family dynamic even though the person we are now has little to do with who we were then!

But not this Thanksgiving Day. Sitting at the end of the table as the family patriarch, I will not leave unsaid what I have struggled all my adult life to say.

They will know they were loved. They will know that I loved them when my actions may have said otherwise, and that I have made amends for those regrettable times.

They will know that I love them. They will not have to wonder about that in the abstract after I am gone. I will make it clear, while I am here, at the head of the table, giving thanks for the power of love in all its glory.

My granddaughter, just turned ten years old, will not understand entirely. But she will feel the energy and hug me tight. And years from now, when those formidable moments of time I’ve described confront her, she’ll find strength and wisdom in her transcendent connection with a grandpa who loved her to the brim of the cup.

And I’ll live on.

2020! What a year it’s been….and there’s still more than a month to come.

When you look at everything that has been canceled this year, it’s easy to feel thankless.
When you look at everything that’s been lost, it’s easy to feel despondent.

But, if you take a look around, and in 2020 you may have to look hard and dig deep, you’ll find something in your life for which you can be grateful. Most likely, more than one thing. Today is a good day to focus on that. Every day is a good day to focus on that!

In 2020, when it’s so hard to find it, gratitude on this day, and every day, is everything.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Related Post: On Thanksgiving, thank you for the privilege of your time

Related Post: Even at Thanksgiving, giving thanks isn’t easy.

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The following was first posted on 11/22/18.  It was written for a non-COVID, second Trump Thanksgiving, but seems appropriate today.  Have a happy Thanksgiving and please stay safe out there:

Thanksgiving can be stressful and this year will be worse.  That I can tell you.

Other than sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, I’m not a fan of Thanksgiving food and tend to approach the gathering of relatives with trepidation.

Coming from a largely dysfunctional family may have soured me on holiday meals.  As far as Thanksgiving goes, it seems like another made up, Hallmark holiday that totally sucks.

Some folks look forward to Thanksgiving as a kickoff event, in a very literal sense.  There are probably more football games on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year.

Not a big football fan, so I may be wrong about that.

Thanksgiving also kicks off the holiday shopping season and historically, the beginning of the end for Native Americans.

Not such a great remembrance if you belong to the Sioux Nation.  Do we really want to remind Native Americans that White people are the worst immigrants EVER?

Down below are some good reasons to avoid Thanksgiving dinner as well as some viable excuses.  If you must go, however, take a lesson from Larry David.

David, creator and star of Curb Your Enthusiasm is in a constant struggle with himself and everyone around him.  He has mastered a technique though, from which we can all benefit, and not just on holidays.

Arguments break down into two main categories.  There’s the political-religious ones, which nobody ever wins and should be avoided like Aunt Millie’s string bean casserole.

Then there’s the more personal arguments that peel scabs of of old wounds.  They generally start with things like You should have known, I told you before… or the ever popular, Why would you..?

These arguments turn into circuitous loops that can drone on until all the pumpkin pie is gone.

Instead of allowing yourself to get caught in that trap, just stop.  Take a few beats and stare intently at the other person’s nose.  Give it a good 10-15 seconds.

Then, just say, OK and go back to what you were doing as if it never happened.

To watch the master in action, click HERE.

While this technique won’t actually solve anything, you can still walk away a winner.  Most of the time, it works pretty, pretty, pretty good.

As promised:

Five good reasons to skip Thanksgiving dinner

1. You can line up early to buy a 70″ TV at Walmart for $50
2. You’re worried that cousin Eddie just got his concealed carry permit
3. It takes you a month to recover from touch football game
4. Aunt Martha keeps complaining that the government wants to take over her Medicare
5. Stuffing – ’nuff said

Five reasonable excuses

1. Toilet overflowed, have to wait for plumber
2. Volunteer border patrol duty today
3. Car stolen
4. Dog/cat keeps vomiting/has diarrhea
5. Still in Pennsylvania counting votes

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