Two working days until vacation

[treeskin]

Today's graduation day here at sunny JCCC, and some bright penny scheduled a major track meet for tomorrow, so we have two events to spit and polish for. Blech. Courtney and I got brownie points yesterday afternoon though, because we hand-pulled weeds at the track, then walked the fence and picked up trash, and the new boss saw us.

I keep hoping that when the "problem-children" PT's screw up, we'll actually get rid of one or tw of them. No luck yesterday, though. One of the PT boys brought a mower back yesterday afternoon with a flat tire, and on closer inspection, and badly bent rim. A freshly bent rim. Shop Steward queried him about this, and is first told "I didn't hit anything", and then "I didn't know I hit anything". Shop Steward pulled him off the mower for the rest of the day, and got told "F*** you" for his trouble. Apparently all the kid got was a severe talking-to. *sigh*



I gave into temptation last night and brought more stuff home from the greenhouse. A little more lemon basil, several more rosemaries, another fruit sage, a few zinnias, and two pots of aloe that I plan to take to camp with us next week. Actually, about half of the new stuff I brought home will probably end up at camp, in the garden there, so it's not quite as bad as it looks.

By was a sweetie last night, and started mowing the front yard. It's very slow going, but he got completely from the house to the maple trees, and completely around the daylily and rose bed in front.

By worked for Robyn all day yesterday, mostly assembling catalogs. Still waiting to hear for sure on the commission. What the client chooses will determine whether or not he'll be working through Heartland--some of the design options Robyn will have to farm out. Hopefully, he'll hear something more definite today.



Looks like Mom won't have to worry about anything but paperwork for that No Child Left Behind BS. The options for teachers that don't already have a "national teacher's certificate" (which is either extra hours at college, or 3 year's worth of testing and classroom audits) are to go back to school and get a minor in the subject you're teaching (which is an extra 15 hours), or fill out a form and see if you qualify on "points". You get "points" for years of teaching, years of teaching this particular subject (if you speciallize, as Mom does), for-credit courses taken in this subject in the last five years, and serving on regional or state curriculem committees. No points are awarded for her master's degree in elementary ed. (Don't ask me, I don't understand it either.) But she's got more than enough points to qualify. But, the kicker is, she'll have to do this every year, until she retires, or someone else is in charge and changes the policy. She's ticked.

Also got some news about that cousin of mine, in Saudi....some of you may remember me talking about how Mom's cousin Debbie had married her first daughter off, and how the girl had been very unhappy, and hadn't been able to conceive, and the guy divorced her. (Actually, her husband picked her up at the hospital after she'd had a nervous breakdown, and left her and her bags on her father's doorstep, but that's a divorce there.) Turns out the girl had had the breakdown because she'd fallen inlove with her husband's best friend, who has married her, despite her slightly-used status. So, all is well again. Mom couldn't get any more info out of Grandma, which either means there's something Grandma's embarrassed to tell, or Grandma's mellowing and no longer so nosy. Mom's almost curious enough to call another cousin (Debbie's father) and ask him flat out.

Ah, family.

Comments

Re: Family Gossip

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

Lately, Mom's family gossip has been the depressing kind; we're having another wave of great aunts and uncles dying off. Grandma is pretty depressed. All of her older siblings have died now, plus a couple of the ones younger than her. And she's nursed the last 4 or 5, rather than put them in hospice care. The family seems to forget that she's nearly 80, and could probably use a nurse to look after her these days.

The town gossip, on the other hand, has been hilarious, if you like dark comdey. Drugs, exploding meth labs, and pissed off former foster parents suing the school because it's all the school's fault they lost their easy monthly checks the child they were caring for. Oh, and some folks freaking out because a hispanic family moved in. Never mind that they bought an old building on main street, cleaned it up, restored the 1920's era murals they found in it, and started two businesses so far....they're brown, and different. Town's getting a little over-selected for the lowest end of the bell curve...most of the smart and creative people leave.