The weekend Thread

[street music]

Brian , love the shirt you have on, that is one of my favorites. Good to see you out enjoying the ability to play with your band. I just sat at home for awhile on Saturday and played with my guitars on a few songs then worked some on man cave, getting it ready for that next GUITAR , took the wife out eat on Sunday and had a nice drive while listening to a cd my best friend just recorded last week, came back and played my Takamine for about an hour

[Brian Krashpad]

Thanks man! I picked it up at Goodwill for $2.50!

Win-win.

[deeaa*]

Here's my condensed Easter weekend in video form.

I had about an hour of family vids from the weekend, I just picked the 'scenery' parts only for this ~4 minute video.

If anything, it shows how the snow is going FAST now. At first we drive to our cottage but can't get to the yard with the car & there's some snowbanks still. Then we drive to Ostrobothnia to see granny, and her yard is devoid of snow already.

Then we drive around Ostrobothia for a while; sceneries from the very countryside heart of Finland; that's what it looks like everywhere. Except more hills usually :-) My wife's from there. It's very flat country, old sea bottom area from 10,000 years back or so, but there was mininal flooding. Then back to the cottage and in two nights the driveway had melted completely and even the ice from the lake was nearly gone. Temps were already up to +20 in the sun too!

BTW also at our cottage there used to be over 100 yards deep a lake some 20k years back.

It's rendered to 720x so turn the HD mode on!

[sunvalleylaw]

You are looking around the same as us, except we are a couple weeks ahead in terms of snow. More almost like at your grannys. Just 12 miles north and up a few hundred feet, there is plenty of snow on Baldy though. We had Easter festivities, and then skied the last day of the year. Sun, snow, and craziness!

[deeaa*]

Oh yeah! When I used to ski much more - in highschool that is - a few times we went to Lapland to ski @ easter...superb time, scorching sun so you could almost ski in a T-shirt, yet plenty of good snow still. And man, they have crazy parties in those after-ski restaurants around Easter :-)

[Eric***]

Friday: Came home early, got some indian take-out, and moved some stuff for the carpet cleaners the next day.

Saturday: Carpet cleaners came and did their thing mid-morning. Went for a run -- the final training run before the Broad Street Run next week -- and surprisingly didn't die, even though my wife and I are woefully undertrained. Futzed around at home and eventually went out to eat with a friend that night.

Sunday: Went to church at my old church and saw some friends there. Trucked down to Delaware for Easter with some of my in-laws' family friends. Left there, came home, sold a couple of items via CL, recorded an acoustic rhythm track for a song I'm working on. Discovered that one of our cats might have the crystals in his bladder, which can be super-bad news. He's easily the best cat I've ever had, so this could be dire news. I'm going to schedule a vet appt as soon as they open today, so I hope it can be corrected. It sounds like it's usually controlled with diet.

So that's that. I could have used another day or so of weekend.

[Brian Krashpad]

Kinda a rough weekend. Last week, out of the blue my wife found out that, no doubt as a result of "budget" pressure from our right-controlled legislature (I won't say any more, I promise), her teaching position and the Adult Ed. ESL (English as a Second Language) program it's a part of was gone and that she'd been "reassigned" to some high school. Both as to the program and her assignment, absolutely zero input was sought from any of the stakeholder students or teachers. Totally top-down axe with no warning.

The sad part of it is, Adult Ed. ESL actually paid for itself and brought in a profit for the school board (there is no school bus transport, or books, or building maintenance cost for the program, which is taught in borrowed UF meeting rooms to students who buy their own books, by teachers who do all of their grading and administrative paperwork from home). So eliminating the program was economically unnecessary, and even counterproductive from a purely monetary standpoint.

My wife has taught in that position for 21 years. As you might expect, she's devastated, and despite all the crowing we hear about "requiring" people in the USA to learn our "official language" of English, doing so for people without a lot of money just got next to impossible in our county.

We're working on what Kim's options are now. She's 6 or 7 years from earliest retirement, and cannot afford to quit. From what I've seen so far, her purported unilateral "reassignment" was probably illegal (in violation of the teacher's labor agreement), but that doesn't bring her old job back.

Saturday-- For me was mainly centered on son's lacrosse activities. Played one game with his team in the early afternoon, they got in a big hole 4-0 and played back to a 3-4 loss. I really wanted them to win as some of the parents on the opposing side were obnoxiously of the "jock" mentality-- dads who were not coaches yelling at players (not their sons) what to do on the field, etc. Ugh. Since this was the first time our Jack had set foot on a lacrosse field, he didn't get much playing time.

It was announced that players could come back later to form a pickup team so that one late-scheduling team would have someone to play against. So we went home for an hour or so between games and cooled off, and he went back and played almost all of the last game, as there were very few subs for the pickup team.

In return for doing the other team (which had 3 or 4 times as many subs) the favor of giving them a game, the other team responded by pouring on points, which in itself is fine, kids can't be asked to not score, but also by a good deal of showboating and grandstanding. Wtf is WRONG with people nowadays? No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose. Fortunately our Jack is thick-skinned when it comes to boorish and unsportsmanlike behavior, and was just glad to get a lot of playing time in. He also got his first red badge of courage, stepped in front of a shot on goal that hit him near his right knee, and he had to be subbed out for a spell. He's a pretty tough kid.

Sunday: skipped playing the "sunrise" service at my church and went to the 9 a.m. service at a closer church on our side of town, as we had plans for the day that going to our church's service would've made difficult. They have an all-contemporary service which Kim (and I) really enjoy. Afterward, we drove over to St. Augustine and had Easter lunch at 1:30 or so in a rather expensive Spanish/Cuban themed restaurant on St. George Street (the blocked-off pedestrian-only street in the old town with many historic buildings on it). Food was good but a smidge disappointing for what we paid (about double what we spend to eat in our favorite family-owned Mexican restaurant at home).

After that we went to our favorite beach at Anastasia. Water temp was a chilly 68F, so we just sat in the sun and enjoyed the cool sea breeze while Jack did some boogie boarding. Got home 7:30 or so, I went and got some pizza, and crashed early. It was a good mini-vacation to let Kim chill out, although by Sunday night she was back to being in tears again. So it goes.

[sunvalleylaw]

Friday, meant to get out for a work break and ski, but stuck in the office all day. Mellow night at home. A little guitar, a little forum time, then bed.

Saturday, drive to Boise for soccer league play for my two boys. 2.25 hour drive each way. Spring, snow melting, willows starting to look bright as they get ready to bud. Good games. Younger son tied one, won one, and cinched the title for U11. Other son's team fought hard but lost two. He is U13, and the play has gotten a lot rougher at that age group, plus most of those Boise kids keep playing most of the year, whilst ours go skiing and such. Still a good effort though. Drive home was also beautiful with many deer, elk and antelope. (feeding time). Drove carefully so as not to hit one. Wife and I got Easter ready, and talked about our aging/ailing parents til midnight. Then to bed.

Easter Sunday, baskets, candy, egg hunt. Then off to ski SV's final day of ops for the year. The whole family can ski together now with not too big a speed split, at least if we are on the groomers or not too gnarly runs. Sun, warmth, spring corn snow, and lots of crazies to look at. Favorite costume, snowboarder dressed like a green plastic army man with his green snowboard serving as the plastic base. LOL!! Toy Story 4 I guess.

EDIT: BK, sorry for your wife's work stuff. I hope it shakes out ok.

[Eric***]

Kinda a rough weekend. Last week, out of the blue my wife found out that, no doubt as a result of "budget" pressure from our right-controlled legislature (I won't say any more, I promise), her teaching position and the Adult Ed. ESL (English as a Second Language) program it's a part of was gone and that she'd been "reassigned" to some high school. Both as to the program and her assignment, absolutely zero input was sought from any of the stakeholder students or teachers. Totally top-down axe with no warning.

Yikes. Sorry to hear the bad news, B. Hopefully she takes a liking to her new position after she gets over the sting of the loss. At least she's not without any job -- that's not exactly a gimme these days.

[deeaa*]

Aww, Brian, that really sucks about your wife's job. As you might remember, I'm an English teacher as well...I once worked at the same school for over 3 years and by law they should have just made it a tenure at that point; instead they kicked out ALL the teachers w/out tenure...and just hired new people, most of them straight to tenures. It was illegal, I would have probably gotten something out of it, but the bastards stretched it out for so long it was holidays for all officials when I learned of it - so I could get no union guys on the line and had to decide by myself whether to start some action. I didn't, they are the biggest employer of that kind round here and they made it pretty clear I might run into big trouble getting a job from them if I raised hell. Off the record, of course and not in so many words.

Well since I didn't raise hell I worked for them for another 2 years in the next building/area before that dwindled...so maybe it was best anyway. Took me years to land a proper job that I now have and that I can pretty much rely on 99% that it'll be the one I retire from too, unless something VERY extreme happens, I dunno, war or something of that magnitude.

Anyway...so I know a little how it feels, despite I only worked there for a few years...it really sucked so bad, it felt like such a low blow I had trouble thinking straight for many days after that and felt like I had trouble simply breathing normally for weeks; it sure came as a terrible shock out of the blue as I had had great student response, was putting together a book to use in teaching, and all that, plus I was just becoming a father and my wife had no job and we'd just bought a house...so yeah, I had all kinds of horror images of what could happen if I didn't get a job soon.

So, I really feel for her, yeah indeed...I hope there's a little solace in that it wasn't personal or local politics or any 'evil' idea of any bosses, but came from way up high.

[Brian Krashpad]

Thanks guys. As Eric points out, at least she has A job. Of some sort. She will talk to the union and unless we're both totally misreading the collective bargaining agreement, a grievance will be filed. Her "reassignment" should be according to a "reduction in force" provision whereby she should have the right to stay in Adult Ed. and be first in line for any such openings (including her old job should the program be reinstated), not simply unilaterally reassigned as if the county had merely thought she'd be better somewhere else. A high school English classroom is the last place she wants to be, for many reasons.

[Duffy]

Dee, I'm a teacher as well, but retired now.

You really told it like it is and it is the same way here. You have a great way of connecting with people. I could completely understand what you went thru and I also wish Krash and especially his wife the best during this definitely very difficult time. I know the feeling. It is almost like your bubble was popped and there you are suddenly naked and powerless in the face of a system that seems like it took its lessons from some crime family. I'm sure she finds some solace in knowing she "has" a job, as shocking as it has been.

[Katastrophe]

Kinda a rough weekend. Last week, out of the blue my wife found out that, no doubt as a result of "budget" pressure from our right-controlled legislature (I won't say any more, I promise), her teaching position and the Adult Ed. ESL (English as a Second Language) program it's a part of was gone and that she'd been "reassigned" to some high school. Both as to the program and her assignment, absolutely zero input was sought from any of the stakeholder students or teachers. Totally top-down axe with no warning.

Dude, that well and truly sucks. Best wishes for Mrs. Krashpad, and I hope the county settles the issue equitably. That's the thing about a collective bargaining agreement... They're kinda hard to ignore... but, folks sometime will still try to do an end run around them.

I also didn't know Mrs. K was a teacher. Now I'm gonna be worried that she'll start grading our grammar to get out the frustration over the job change. :facepalm

My weekend ended this morning after getting in from work. School and work are starting to take their toll. Don't get me wrong, I still love my job, but miss doing family stuff on the weekends. Mrs. Kat is getting tired, too.

Time to build up some vacation time, take the weekend off, ship Baby Kat to her aunt's for the weekend, and take a break!

[Tig***]

I guess "A half of a loaf is better than no loaf at all" applies here. I hope things settle down and she gets back to teaching her specialty.

Our district is allowing the usual Summer attrition to thin out the budget, as well as some re-assignments. Layoffs should be at a minimum. We'll see.

[Tig***]

Got to work from home Saturday evening/Sunday morning vai VPN.
Easter was nice, having the grand kids over to hunt eggs (after I removed the doggy brown "eggs" with a shovel).

The twins


The granddaughter

[Childbride]

Brian, I am sorry to hear about your wife's job. That stinks.

Spent weekend w byproxy; got fitted for new masks in h-town

Went to Rockin' Robin. Thanks, Tig, that was cool. I behaved myself. I need not acquire another axe yet. I have to be good.

[Brian Krashpad]

Thanks folks.

Tig those kids are too cute!

Cb, I have no idea what your second sentence means?

[deeaa*]

LOL that makes 2 of us :-) maybe it's some kind of code?

[Eric***]

Count me in: we're up to 3.