Everyone was saying that going back after this break was surprisingly difficult. Why so hard this year? I don’t know. It is so dark outside. It’s dark when we get up and dark when we get home. A lot of the kids complained of not being able to go to sleep on Sunday night–out of sync with the school week, I guess. And some people were getting on my nerves. I was reminded of what Frederic, in The Pirates of Penzance, tells the pirates when he announces his intention to leave them and wage war against their kind: “Individually, I love you all with affection unspeakable, but collectively, I look upon you with a disgust that amounts to absolute detestation.”