I've received nine (four today, five yesterday) spam calls from different numbers telling me that my Social Security number is "about to be cancelled." Now, I've received these before, but never in these quantities and in such a short period of time. I block each number as it comes in, but it's getting tedious.
Similarly, we have been getting multiple calls a day on our home phone from research groups trying to get us to complete political polls. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to block these numbers as they are often from the same place, despite my asking them to stop. Because I'm still hoping for a repair person to call, I have been answering each call rather than letting the answering machine screen them. However, I've gotten to the point that I ask if the call is a about a survey, and if they answer in the affirmative, I say, "I'm sorry, but we're just going to have to surprise you."
Janelle, Trevor, and I voted in today's Borough election. It's generally a disheartening practice as many people in our area are easily swayed by demagogues and tend to vote against their actual best interests. Thus, I can almost guarantee that the candidate or issue that I vote for will lose. Still, according to Atticus, knowing you're going to lose, but trying anyway because it's the right thing to do is what defines true courage.
On a bright note, I've been recording some of my "Read Alouds" for my literature classes and have been enjoying the experience entirely too much. The other day, I read "The Most Dangerous Game" and listened as my Russian accent for General Zaroff get more an more ridiculous as the story went on. Today, I kept finding myself mispronouncing one of the character's names (saying Gregor instead of Georg) in "The Interlopers" and had WAY too much fun reading the sonnets of Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. Recording these takes quite a bit of my time and I normally would just do a live reading in class, but as I never know when students will be quarantined, I wanted to have these available whether they could be present in school or not (If you want a taste, here's my take [which is not necessarily accurate] on two sonnets by Sir Philip Sidney).
Wow. That put me in a good mood. I guess it's good that I at least amuse myself. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.