Author: Doug McCaughan

Father of 5. Juggler. Ticked off at blogger.com.
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Knoxville: Knox County Schools providing food to children

Emergency Feeding Information
While Knox County Schools is closed through April 3, 2020, out of concern over COVID-19, the district will be providing breakfast and lunch to any child 18 and under at no charge. Due to federal regulations, food cannot be distributed during an anticipated closure such as Spring Break; therefore, meal distribution will begin Monday, March 23, 2020.

Throughout the closure, meal distribution will occur on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 10 am-noon. The district will be providing two days’ worth of meals to be distributed on Monday and Wednesday, and a day’s worth of meals on Friday. Breakfast and lunch will be distributed at the same time.

The meals will be available at one of 25 designated emergency school feeding sites via drive-thru or walk-up for children to consume at home. There is no dine-in option. Children must be present to receive meals; however, families may pick up at any distribution site regardless of enrollment. Additionally, no proof of income is required. Extra meals cannot be provided if additional children are not present.

Distribution of meals will occur near the main entrance of each school feeding site. These include:

• Austin-East High School: 2800 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., Knoxville, TN 37914
• Bearden Middle School: 1000 Francis Road, Knoxville, TN 37909
• Bearden High School: 8352 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919
• Beaumont Magnet Academy: 1211 Beaumont Ave., Knoxville, TN 37921
• Belle Morris Elementary School: 2308 Washington Pike, Knoxville, TN 37917
• Carter High School: 210 N. Carter School Road, Strawberry Plains, TN 37871
• Central High School: 5321 Jacksboro Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918
• Dogwood Elementary School: 705 Tipton Ave., Knoxville, TN 37920
• East Knox Elementary School: 9315 Rutledge Pike, Mascot, TN 37806
• Fulton High School: 2509 N. Broadway, Knoxville, TN 37917
• Gibbs High School: 7628 Tazewell Pike, Corryton, TN 37721
• Green Magnet Academy: 801 Lula Powell Dr., Knoxville, TN 37915
• Gresham Middle School: 500 Gresham Road, Knoxville, TN 37918
• Halls High School: 4321 E. Emory Road, Knoxville, TN 37938
• Inskip Elementary School: 4701 High School Road, Knoxville, TN 37912
• Karns Middle School: 2925 Gray Hendrix Road, Knoxville, TN 37931
• Lonsdale Elementary School: 1317 Louisiana Ave., Knoxville, TN 37921
• Maynard Elementary School: 737 College Street, Knoxville, TN 37921
• Northwest Middle School: 5301 Pleasant Ridge Road, Knoxville, TN 37912
• Pond Gap Elementary School: 4530 Papermill Dr., Knoxville, TN 37909
• Powell High School: 2136 W. Emory Road, Powell, TN 37849
• Sarah Moore Greene Academy: 3001 Brooks Ave., Knoxville, TN 37914
• South-Doyle Middle School: 3900 Decatur Road, Knoxville, TN 37920
• South-Doyle High School: 2020 Tipton Station Road, Knoxville, TN 37920
• West High School: 3300 Sutherland Ave., Knoxville, TN 37919

We encourage families to continue to be proactive in reducing the risk of COVID-19 by not congregating at the school site.

More information related to the extended closure may be found at knoxschools.org/covid19update.

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National Emergency – Day 4

This day was spent working. I’m fortunate to have a job that allowed me to work out of the basement in various stages of disrobe (get that picture out of your head) for 12 years. So, I worked all day long on a frustrating optimization project. I improved the code I wrote 4 years ago but ultimately it came down to a data issue.

I had a one-hour outing to make a run to Kroger (grocery), Barnes and Noble (a chocolate chip cookie), an adult store (lube and wishful thinking), and CVS drive-thru (medicine). Okay, one of these is made up.

I finished the evening making a screencast for another client and watching an episode of Locke and Key with my wife. An amazing show aside an amazing woman!

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National Emergency – Day 3

My wife made me rethink our family’s status in this pandemic.

My MIL works with the general public in a demographic that believes coronavirus is a hoax (are these the same people who believe we never landed on the moon?). She came to the house yesterday for social visit after shopping at Costco.

I went to hot yoga yesterday to sweat in a sealed-up room recycling the air of 20 people crammed together and will probably go a couple of times again this week.

My wife remains isolated in the house but is in contact with all of us high-riskers.

My eldest son works the cash register at a pizza joint that has run out of cleaning supplies and all his coworkers believe this is a hoax. He is spraying Lysol on the pen and cash as he interacts with the customers.

My eldest daughter works at an airport.

My middle son is on mandatory work from home. He lives with my MIL and joined her at Costco and the social visit yesterday.

My youngest daughter is house-sitting for my eldest daughter and hanging out in the Asheville mall.

My youngest son is addicted to working out at the YMCA.

We are not going to escape this plague.

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National Emergency – Day 1

Today, the president of the United States declared a national emergency in response to a worldwide pandemic. The pandemic is decimating Italy. China is in bad shape. This is playing out like a post-apocalyptic zombie movie. Of course, many Republicans are calling the whole thing a hoax. They’ve their minds.
I’ve spent the past half a decade trying but failing to make our household self-sufficient but I’m in the wrong tax bracket. It’s very difficult to garden and generate your own power and supply your own water when you work night and day and barely scrape by.
Amy is in Asheville house-sitting for her sister and her SO who are camping in the woods. Those three are safe for now. Tommy is working at Dominoes dealing with the general public so he cannot self-isolate and is the highest risk of being patient zero in our home. Evan is out of school for Spring Break but wants to go to the gym every day. We are going to have to work on him to convince him that tasks like chopping wood are just as good as the gym. Noah is on mandatory “work from home.” We haven’t let Cathy out of the house in a year so she is used to being shut-in and will lead us through this. I’m on vacation for the week.
What next? I’m spending the evening cooking food.

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It is 2020. Leave your gun at home.

When I see someone walking the streets of the United States with a gun on their hip or slinging an AK while wearing a bulletproof vest, I do not think of freedom or patriotism. I think sad thoughts for the coward who is so fearful that they cannot function in our society without a weapon and I wish them the freedom I feel from day to day knowing I do not need a gun. I do not view these citizens as protectors as their display distracts our law enforcement from their duties. Instead, I see adult children playing a dangerous game of soldiers. Your arrogance does not make me more confident. It makes me apprehensive as I have to watch for your temper, your clumsiness, your accidental discharge as you are not a good guy with a gun but a wild card and hazard to our free society. Leave your gun at home.