Pedantic Ponderings

Last week, I neglected to mention that I made some pies. Monkey was very happy. I was very happy. James, who found out I was making pie, because I called her and told her, was not happy. She didn't get any. I have been considering a cottage industry. Not as a pie maker, but as a crust-maker teacher. After all, give a man a piece of pie and he's happy for an hour. Teach a man to make a pie, and he's yelling and cursing and throwing things for about six months until he really gets the hang of it. Thanks, Mom!

Another week gone by. Seems like only yesterday, we were driving back from Oregon, getting ready to start a new job, a new school year. Preparing to buy a house.

Things change. The house buying has been put on hold, in case you didn't know. We've decided that with our status still fluid (will we be here for two years or fifty?) it is wiser to wait and see what happens. Our rent is less than any house payment, and having to sell a house after only owning it for eighteen months could wind up losing us money. We don't want to do that.

So, here we are in the same little house, still waiting to see what happens. Funny, I feel like we've been waiting to see what happens for about a hundred years now. And guess what. A great deal of stuff has happened, just nothing to give us any idea what the next step on our little journey will be. Does that ever happen? Maybe. But enough of that. Who wants to read me waxing philosophical? That's right: nobody but me.

The past week has been relatively uneventful. Read in the paper on Tuesday that one of my students had been arrested for armed robbery. That's always fun. So far this year, I have lost four kids to expulsion for criminal behavior. Sign of the times or just a bad year? Don't know. Global warming could be to blame.

The Monkey is in Oklahoma this weekend. I have no plans. Maybe a bike ride today with the Robmeister and K-Dogg, maybe a beer or two tonight with James. Maybe a birding trip on Sunday with the Osculator. Maybe I will just stay home, walk the dog and read (though probably not at the same time).

I will, of course, visit the Hive to do some grocery shopping. Oh, how I love grocery shopping! All those boxes and cans. All that previously frozen meat. All those waxy, flown-in-from-three-thousand-miles-away vegetables. Sometimes, I wish I lived on a farm. But, that's a full-time job in itself. How can I edumucate the churlen if I'm all day tilling the soil and feeding the hens? It just won't do!

I got into a little argument at a happy hour last night with a fellow teacher about the neccesity of the National Education Association (NEA). He felt that they were too much of a political organization and that they weren't really interested in "helping kids." God, that just fired me up. After all, education is probably the most politicized field in the country (short of abortion medicine (is that what it's actually called? Seems oxymoronic.)). Why shouldn't we (teachers) have a political organization to understand and lobby for issues that affect us? And, wouldn't educated, content, well-compensated teachers be best for helping kids? That's my take, anyway. And this dude I'm arguing with is somewhere near 23 years old. For some reason, I found that most frustrating. At any rate, we never came to blows or anything.

That's all for now. Think I'll let Ripken take me for a walk. The weather is fixing up to be great here this weekend. Until next time!