KokomoWX

This article was posted in a local Facebook community forum and people are freaking out. All I can say is good grief.

I just don't get why everyone wants to target the low hanging fruit of schools and in person learning. I work at a school, with 1850 students K-12 plus staff who have been in school since early August. We have closed twice for a couple of days each when we lost a small but critical departments (food service/custodial) to quarantines. We played sports, had plays and band concerts and exhibitions, and a variety of activities. Our Covid positives stand at 131 for the entire year for students and staff. We have had no outbreaks and our positivity rate was always much less than local and state rates. Schools can safely open and should be open. Period. We did allow for students to chose in remain home and do distance learning but the number was small to start and dwindled quickly. We have zero plans to offer this as an option next school year.

I spend all day yesterday at Ben Davis HS photographing Indiana Percussion State Finals. I was pretty oblivious to weather let along severe weather possibilities. Headed home and could see a pretty impressive lightning storm ahead as I made my was up 421 back to Kokomo. Crossed 32 and the rain kicked in. A couple of miles later I ran into the hail core. Oh my. Nickle sized hail, zero visibility, no shelter (for the car), it was deafening inside the car. (I was just in a gym with percussion for 10 hours so I know loud!) It lasted for 5 minutes or so. I made it to Kirklin and pulled under an abandon gas station canopy. No damage to the car. Whew. Double checked today and still good.

I got my first (Pfizer) shot today. While I had self scheduled appointment a few weeks out, I also managed to get on a waitlist before I was scheduled. The person running the clinic said I was the last person they would be calling when they had extra shots available. She said they already have partnered with local EMS to use extra daily doses to go to homebound starting on Monday. Just 5.5 weeks to full immunity. Yay!

This winter was like winning the Indy 500 with a slow car and being out of sequence with your pit stops that put you in the momentary lead near the end and then having the race finish under yellow.

Indiana is open to 55 and up now. I managed to get on the schedule. YAY!

Paul Pastelok from AccuWeather is doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit for those interested in his spring severe forecast.

Ages 60-64 became eligible today in Indiana.

Let’s hope he is correct. https://nypost.com/2021/02/20/johns-hopkins-expert-says-covid-19-pandemic-could-end-by-april/?utm_campaign=iphone_nyp&utm_source=pasteboard_app .

One thing I wonder is where do we go when we have vaccines for everyone but not everyone choses to get the vaccine. I think we will end up with 20% not taking it for whatever reason (valid or not). I really am hoping to not start the fall school year with mandatory masks.

School has been cancelled for the third day in a row. Tomorrow also seems unlikely. Heck, maybe even Friday. With folks socked in due to the weather, we should be knocking this way down locally.

-12 this morning. Yikes!

Took a bit of time today to enjoy the snow.

Life in the burbs...

No personal measurement but have a report of 10.5” from a nearby ham radio spotter reporting his total. Seems about right. The heaviest band slide just east of Kokomo for the first couple of hours. When board reports of “ripping snow” came from Indy, it was just moderate here. Drifts reported of 3-4 feet in the county. It will be a long day digging out. .

My hopes are high over in OKK too.

I know the NW trends are going to hurt the the hopes and dreams of Ohioans. Sorry.

12Z HRRR

Everything looks good for Kokomo but the NWS forecast remains tempered at 2-4" advisory level.

Kokomo (north central Indianas) dropped 2" from near 7" into the 4" with the bulk clustered in the 2-3" range. Sigh.

A little positivity from NWS Indy. I think the Ohio posters are going to get buried.

Tonight made me think back on a year lost. I do photography part-time and for the first time since the lockdown began, I have a photo job more than just a quick couple of shots locally. As I was packing, I looked at my clipboard for the first time in what seems like forever. On it were my assignments for four days of the best HS concert bands, orchestras, ensembles, and choirs. All the performances at about every venue in Indy and Carmel. I had highlighted you specific assignments, written notes about specific photos that were required above my general thousands of PR/event/performance photos and what advertising assignments for vendors were required. I was 100% packed with gear and ready to go. I started getting some notices a couple of days before that many west of the Rockies groups were not coming. Things were changing every few hours it seemed. The morning I was to head down to Indy I was told to wait a couple of hours. I was then told it was all but being canceled. Just like that, my whole year of performing and marching arts photography were done. No world championships for WGI, DCI, and no BOA Grand Nationals. No college commencements either. Nothing. Fortunately I had a real day job in K-12 education where I worked every day. When this all began, we all thought we would take a pause for two weeks and do eLearning followed by spring break and a return to the classroom. Nope. We finished the year with eLearning. The good news is everyone got on board with returning to school on time for the new school year and we found a way to make it work. We did offer distance learning for those who were uncomfortable coming back. About 15% of the students started the year that way. Everyone else came every day. After all was ok, about another 5% or so trickled back by October. We have played sports and had other activities with of course social distance protocols and masks. Weather related: Our first day was canceled because of no power due to the derecho. Honestly that was a small blessing. Everyone had been pushing pretty hard to get ready. I think that single day to mentally and physically relax was what we all needed. I know many have had a much tougher year. It did take me until the fall before I knew anyone that lost someone to Covid. Since then I’ve known of maybe a half dozen people who lost someone close. These are mostly Facebook friends. It has been a tough year with the politics of Covid. I don’t always agree to the way things have been handled by local, state, and federal governments. Of course it is easy to armchair quarterback. I am amazed at the job science has done to come up with a vaccine and I think a lot of things will be better off because of this hardship and research. Sadly the world is full of people who lack common sense and courtesy and so many are just out for themselves. It has been disheartening many times. In a few weeks, it will be the one year anniversary of the two week lockdown to “stop the spread.” I am grateful for good health. I’m grateful that some normalcy is happening and I’ll be able to see, hear, and photograph live music performances. It won’t be like the old days. There won’t be many fans. We all have to wear masks and social distance. No concessions or hospitality. I still have most of my spring and summer events canceled but feel good about fall. Soon the age for vaccines in Indiana will drop to 60 and up. I’ll be probably be 59 years and 8 or 9 months. [emoji849] However, once more vaccines are shipping to the states, I know locally things will get moving quickly. Indiana has a great infrastructure. My only hope is we don’t get bogged down by the feds. I wrote a lot. Sorry about that if you read it all. Pardon my typos too. Let’s think positive, enjoy a couple more weeks of snow and start a new beginning with spring. .

This (from IND)