Lyric Winik

@Andrew_Friedson @MontCoExec @MoCoCouncilMD Thank you for compiling and asking these important questions. We will all appreciate learning the answers.

Thanks for sharing concerns on the County's snowstorm response. Given the number of questions & time limitations, I've sent this detailed list of questions to @MontCoExec seeking clear answers on what went wrong and how we fix it. @MoCoCouncilMD hearing: tinyurl.com/5exexp7a

@MCCCANM The gift you are giving her son can’t be wrapped and is priceless. Hope that makes it easier for all of you. 🙏🏼

Awake 26 hours. Redeye from Maui. Pickup kids. Pickup dogs. Open presents. Clean up. Pick up Prime Rib & dry brine for tomorrow. Go to GF’s house for gift exchange, pickup her son & get her on the way to the ER. I’m smoked. Feeding kids fast food & hope to be in bed by 6:00.

@MCCCANM 1000 times Yes -- &keep wills/trusts updated. Make someone joint on the bank account, and make them an authorized agent on all your utilities -- looking at you Xfinity -- and insurance. It's so hard. As a person still on this long-haul flight, I'm so, so sorry for your loss.

It’s not fun, but plan your own funeral. Go down to the funeral home, sit down & work out the details. Pay for it now, like an insurance plan. Spell everything out. Create a document that’s easily accessible to your family w/ information like account numbers, passwords, safe combinations…anything & everything they will need to access. Tell them who to call & what the number is, along with an email address. A will or trust should go without saying. Get it. Then write your own obituary. Put copies of all of the above in a binder that your loved ones know about & can quickly access. Maybe write a foreword to it; you can say whatever, but spell out what the process will look like. Little details like “it can take 10 business days to get a death certificate & nothing can really happen without that” will help them plan. My father had most of this together; he paid for his own funeral 15 years ago & it was all planned out. I cannot emphasize enough how much easier this has made everything.

I don’t want to connect my coffee machine to the wifi network. I don’t want to share the file with OneDrive. I don’t want to download an app to check my car’s fluid levels. I don’t want to scan a QR code to view the restaurant menu. I don’t want to let Google know my location before showing me the search results. I don’t want to include a Teams link on the calendar invite. I don’t want to pay 50 different monthly subscription fees for all my software. I don’t want to upgrade to TurboTax platinum plus audit protection. I don’t want to install the Webex plugin to join the meeting. I don’t want to share my car’s braking data with the actuaries at State Farm. I don’t want to text with your AI chatbot. I don’t want to download the Instagram app to look at your picture. I don’t want to type in my email address to view the content on your company’s website. I don’t want text messages with promo codes. I don’t want to leave your company a five-star Google review in exchange for the chance to win a $20 Starbucks gift card. I don’t want to join your exclusive community in the metaverse. I don’t want AI to help me write my comments on LinkedIn. I don’t even want to be on LinkedIn in the first place. I just want to pay for a product one time (and only one time), know that it’s going to work flawlessly, press 0 to speak to an operator if I need help, and otherwise be left alone and treated with some small measure of human dignity, if that’s not too much to ask anymore.

@MCCCANM First, you can’t be that drunk. Only Hemingway could write that well drunk and even he might have been fudging. Second, most if not all (spoken from experience) of us need to howl at the moon from time to time. Hard thing, this life. Clouds do break for sun from time to time

Sorry, I’m drunk: We don’t have many “little steps” left to take or make. We won’t be together much longer. She will be taken; though I’ve known it for years, it doesn’t hurt less. She shined in an incredible way – a supernova. I was black-pilled after a terrible divorce complete w/ false accusations & later this woman came along; I was slow to trust & bitter but she made the world bright again. She made me smile. She gave me hope & something to come home to. I think that’s what most men aspire to…something to come home to, some family unit to serve & sacrifice for. I put my own life below my children’s, and below my wife or partner. I will suffer whatever I must for their benefit, and I’ll take satisfaction in doing it. In a weird way, it will make me happy. She is far more than I deserve & now she is wasting away…and I can’t do anything about it, no matter how much I work or suffer. Part of me – maybe a large part – will go with her. I will soldier on for the kids, but she was so beautiful & bright…that light will be gone & I’m not sure what’s left. Now she struggles to get out of bed. Can’t eat besides a bag of liquids hooked to a pump & tube, either. Which is only one of three tubes & bags. Cancer is devouring her. She weighs 80 pounds. She’s still beautiful. I will be lost without her; no purpose or rudder. I was going to show her the world & how to have spontaneous adventures…she’d started learning to non-rev & we made good use of it, but it’s not to be. I’ll carry on for the kids, but I just don’t see anything for me, and I’m tired of being the good soldier & sucking up all the bad shit. So, so tired of “you’ll survive”. I’m sorry. Like I said, I’m drunk. I need to let this stuff out sometimes. Bobby Brown had a great sentiment & my GF danced to it in the video: “Every little step I take, you will be there Every little step I make, we’ll be together” I was against commitments when we met, then skeptical, then hoped & lived for it. I rejoiced in finding a partner like her – she’s just so good. Then I was robbed of it. More importantly, she was robbed of everything. I already mourn for her, and part of that is mourning for all that could have been for her. The world is losing an amazing woman. Just a zombie at this point. Not feeling much of anything. Sorry, drunk musings as I go through my phone. I try not to talk about this, and I am really good when she’s unloading on me, but I don’t have anyone else to share that with & sometimes it builds up. I’m not a threat to anyone or myself; my job actually gives me some joy…but I’m just hurting at home now.

@MCCCANM If you have time, topbike rental.com has a very cool bike tour of the old Appian Way up to park of the aqueducts. E-bikes, great scenery, and history. A good mix. We did the one that included a catacomb. Trastevere district for street food. Enjoy!

The Vatican tour is worth your time in Rome. You could spend a lifetime & not see everything. I’m not particularly religious, but St. Peter’s Basilica is awe-inspiring. Even the kids were struck (for 2 minutes). They don’t allow photos in the Sistine Chapel, but it’s amazing.

@MCCCANM Second part of the answer: you can also try to negotiate with the cc companies to cut the debt. But retirement will be in the clear outside of tax liabilities. Check the state law to be sure — and double check beneficiary designation and any rules re: minors. 💙for that kid

@WriterLyricW Thank you, and I’m sorry for your loss. That truly is a terrible month

Hate to ask for free legal advice & won’t hold anyone to it, but… If someone dies w/ significant credit card debt, can creditors come after a will leaving retirement to kid? Not many assets…mostly retirement accounts (not substantial) Thank you. Just discovered this issue

@MCCCANM Thank you. Much appreciated — here’s the answer: only the IRS will come after retirement accounts (IRA etc) for unpaid tax debt. Otherwise, retirement with a beneficiary designation does not go through the estate. Credit card debt becomes a creditor of the estate.

@MCCCANM Thank you for the calm, sensible, and smart way you educate the rest of us. Your crew and passengers are incredibly fortunate to have you in the cockpit. Hope if you ever go on to a next career, it involves teaching or coaching. 🙏🏼

Last night, sitting in Washington, DC, I was trying to explain to passengers why we couldn’t leave to Boston “There’s no weather in Boston!” they observed That’s true – the storm that had basically shut BOS down for 90 minutes was now gone…it’s understandably confusing! Here’s the thing: for the last 90 minutes, everyone who had been trying to land in BOS has been holding or diverting when they shut the field down. Others have been parked at the gate at some other airport, waiting for permission to takeoff, while still others are on their original schedule, which would have them leaving now. The moment it opens up, they all want in & you have: • 90 minutes of jets that should have already landed • 90 minutes of jets that should already be well on their way, or landing now • The next 90 minutes of jets that were planned to be leaving now If they all come at once, you end up w/ a demand that’s triple or more of your actual capacity – they can only land so many jets an hour. Once they start stacking them in holding patterns around the airport, it can interfere w/ departing aircraft as well as aircraft departing or arriving to other nearby airports (a particular problem for the closely-spaced cities on the East Coast when widespread storms develop) Don’t forget – the airplanes that do come in ALSO need to cycle out, which takes anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes per jet. Gates are limited; land more jets than you can service & turn & you’ll quickly start filling taxiways up w/ parked jets until it’s gridlock & you have to shut back down You also can’t overwhelm the local satellite airports w/diversions. 45 of those an hour will pack the small fields, which can handle a few diversions, but don’t have the service capacity to fuel the jets & get them back on their way before the crews run out of duty day To solve these problems, the FAA issues “Ground Stops”. All traffic headed to a certain airport from certain areas is stopped before it can take off. Ground stops are issued in stages; they start with the closest airfields, almost like “everything at an airport within 400 miles of BOS – & is headed to BOS – is now grounded” If it’s going to be a quick event & recovery won’t take long, that may be the extent of it. If not, though, they’ll start extending ground stops further & further out, almost like bigger & bigger rings. If it’s going to be something major, ground stops can extend coast to coast & internationally, but that’s pretty rare (no need to ground stop a flight from LAX to BOS taking off now if it will take 5 hours to arrive & you expect to be back to normal in 3) When the weather or other event clears, ground stops that do get very large are usually removed in reverse order, which helps to manage the flow…so if you’re in the DC or NY area & trying to get to BOS, you’ll be one of the last to be allowed to depart. Even when they’re removed, the FAA may replace a ground stop with a “Ground Delay Program” or “Flow Time” to limit how many can arrive at once Depending on how long the interruption was, it will take several hours to recover. Yes, the weather is gone, but launching everything at once is a recipe for disaster We ended up launching 2+30 late & nearly had to delay this morning’s flight as we only got 10 hours off duty – which is about 9 hours 20 minutes in a hotel room For others, their flights probably canceled as crews ran out of duty. Still, the effects on today’s schedules is likely to be small, especially for airlines that use BOS as a hub, where reserve crews can be called in Anyway, the summary is that capacity is limited & the backlogged demand + scheduled regular demand will crush the system once these events are over. Expect delays even well after a long storm has cleared…especially for short flights

@mattwridley Pop NB pbb

Right. An airliner crashes and imagine airline industry executives saying let’s not find out what happened…

@Andrew_Friedson @MoCoCouncilMD We are fortunate to have you in public life. Thank you for serving and for your great work and fresh ideas.

Deeply humbled to be chosen by colleagues to serve as President of the @MoCoCouncilMD today. We will boldly embrace our oversight role like never before. We will break away from the same old strategies that lead to the same old results. 1/

@Andrew_Friedson @KennethBaer @Marc_Elrich @JCRCgw @ADL_WashDC No better or more caring advocate than @Andrew_Friedson I know first hand. The best.

@KennethBaer @Marc_Elrich Cultural competency re antisemitism is an ongoing concern at MCPS I’ve been trying to address. I’ve been working virtually around the clock w/ @JCRCgw & @ADL_WashDC and have directly shared my views and the views of pained parents/staff/students who’ve reached out to me about it.

"if our schools can’t call out the brutal murder of Jews right before our eyes, of what use is the Holocaust education and cultural competency that we have worked together to advance?  You must do more. You must do it now.” What say you, @Marc_Elrich, @Andrew_Friedson?

FYI, Jackson Lewis, the law firm that MCPS retained to do the independent investigation was appointed as special counsel "as special counsel to assist the Office of the County Attorney in representing Montgomery County and the members of the County’s Self-Insurance Fund"

@PBienenfeld @MontCoExec @MoCoCouncilMD PTSAs have to do it for almost every event we hold. The new software has made it worse. Expensive for PTSAs too!

Montgomery Countians, has anyone tried to book meeting rooms with CUPF? It's a nightmare. Thoughts? @MontCoExec @MoCoCouncilMD

Books are for reading, not banning. Check out the treasure trove of books at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School used book sale this weekend!

@EvanMGlass @OfficialBCCHS @BCC_Booksale Thank you for your wonderful support!! B-CC PTSA!

@jaredssolomon @MomsDemand @MSEAeducators @gunviolenceprev @RLynneHarris Thank you!!

It’s UNANIMOUS! Thanks to @MomsDemand & all who helped pass HB515. It requires schools to give prior notice of active shooter drills, design them to be developmentally appropriate, collect data on the effects of these drills, & give families info on safe gun storage requirements.

after a whirlwind week spent dealing with the aftermath of a fatal fire at our apartment complex, I'm back on my beat. 😎 @MCPS fam, send tips!