November 7, 2020
Location: A “Breakout” Room at the Zoom Annual Meeting of ClassConn
Present: Paula and Susan
September 24, 2020
Location: Zoom Meeting Room
Present: Paula, Susan, Ginger, Nina, and Joyce
Welcome, Ginger! Zoom is making it possible for Ginger to join us, so there is at least a tiny silver lining to the current world situation. We shared what we are hearing from family and colleagues who are teaching, and again we expressed relief at being retired during this ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Even though we do not face the enormous challenge of teaching in these times, we are experiencing anxiety and depression (Great visual imagery was supplied by Nina with description of Oizys and Nyx clinging to our feet: “In Greek mythology, Oizys is the goddess of misery, anxiety, grief, and depression. She is the daughter of Nyx, the goddess of night ….” - - - Wikipedia) with changes to our daily lives and, especially, to intended travel that is now postponed indefinitely. Paula was to travel to Australia. Nina and Paula to Greece. Susan to the final 5 states of 50 before her 50th anniversary (supplanted recently with canoeing on the CT River for great social distancing). Joyce is trying to sell a house and move into a new one . . . as soon as it will be finished. Despite the 2020 slew of personal and political disappointments, we all managed smiles and good-humored collegiality as we feel blessed to have one another . . . and Zoom.
August 19, 2020
Location: Zoom Meeting Room
Present: Joyce, Susan, Paula, & Nina
Today’s meeting focused on how and what we are all continuing to do during the COVID-19 pandemic, the going-back-to-school saga, the Democratic National Convention, and classics-related reads. Recommended books included Dorothy Sayers’ Gaudy Night (available free to borrow on Hoopla) and Madeleine Miller’s Circe and Achilles. Also mentioned was the three-volume historical fiction cycle by Benita Kane Jaro, The Lock, The Key, and The Door in the Wall, based on the lives of Cicero, Catullus, and Caesar, respectively, and a later work, Betray the Night, a novel about Ovid. Nina encouraged all to help Get Out the Vote by signing up with Postcards to Voters. Based on our warm and serious, but also at times cheerful, discussion of the pandemic, economy, impending election, reopening of schools, current postal service crisis, and recent, lengthy hurricane outages, there was unanimous agreement that the theme for 2020 has so far been “Uncertainty.”
July 20, 2020
Location: Zoom Meeting Room
Present: Paula (in & out), Susan, Nina, & Joyce
Today, with temperatures and humidity very high, we were pleased and quite satisfied to meet once again on Zoom. We discussed the recent CANE Annual Meeting, its program topics and presentations, and how to access replays. Most of our discussion focused on the coronavirus and how we each are coping. We shared concerns for personal behaviors in public places and for the reopening of schools. While we agree that teaching via Zoom has pros and cons and many limitations (Kudos to all teachers who have and will need to carry on in whatever capacity needed to the end of this pandemic), we are particularly concerned about the likely spread of the virus to teachers, staff, and students who will be required to meet in person, even with masks, cohorts, and social distancing. We do not want our group to be political; however, today, we could not help sharing criticism of our government’s current handling of the virus and protests.
June 8, 2020
Location: Zoom Meeting Room
Present: Paula, Susan, & Nina
Nina showed her recent paintings and reported on a new shutdown creative activity: making and painting missing jigsaw pieces. (Send puzzles that are missing pieces to Nina!) Susan updated the group on her Latin Zoom class offered through the Branford Blackstone Library. Enrollment has increased since the class went online! Paula quizzed Susan and Nina on Latin verb translations from a 1950’s test booklet. We had a good time connecting, this time in pandemic retirement. Missing were other retirees . . . and a shared lunch.
January 30, 2020
Location: Friends & Co. in Madison
Present: Nina, Paula, Susan, & Gerry
We had a fabulous lunch today and a great time catching up in this cozy restaurant bedecked with beautiful paintings. We also spoke about the Turner exhibit from the London Tate currently in Mystic. Nina informed about Slater Museum casts that will be loaned and her own continuing study and growth as a painter, now with a painting in a show. Paula told of her upcoming trip with Nina and six others to Greece, and she proposed that we choose a book to all read on our own and then discuss it at one meeting a year. Susan reported that her volunteer Latin classes for senior citizens and at the Branford library are continuing, holding steady, and are immensely rewarding, and she brought Horace’s Ode 2.10 to read and discuss. Gerry reminded us all how having taught in high schools was excellent preparation for life after teaching. Of course, many other things were discussed, and a happy, collegial time was had by all. We hope to get together again in May.