Clancy59

Oops. I believe you are correct.

I am sure that the students will be involved in something with the wedding!

NOOOOOO!!! You can’t end here! That’s not fair to drop that bomb and end the chapter on that note! Matt was smart. He KNEW something was still hinky, so he stuck with it. That explains all those late nights. Mike and Kelly’s parents think that Seamus is really dumb enough not to surround himself with people who can dig down and find the rotten layers they have laid. They may be aware of Matt, but are distainful enough of his age and his fresh diploma to assume that he is incapable of figuring out just what they have done. This attitude is not uncommon among those who are trying to pull a fast one on others. They think that they, themselves, are so much more intelligent than everyone else. No one will be able to figure out what they are up to. Well, they have a surprise coming! Mini Seamus? Yes! Let’s see. ‘Seamus’ is Gaelic for ‘John.’ We have to come up with good names for both girls AND boys, just in case! Oh! And don’t forget that IVF procedures often result in multiple births (hint, hint)! Don’t keep us waiting for long. BTW, I support the idea of a story for Jay and Loe!

OK. Enough is enough! This onion pie thing is driving me crazy, so… https://www.theblackpeppercorn.com/vidalia-onion-pie/ (although this has a cracker crust) and https://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/german-onion-and-bacon-pie-zwiebelkuchen/2af3f7b4-232d-4ca8-944a-5843996e0271 Now we can all try it for ourselves!

Well, dishonest people tend to think everyone is dishonest. They can’t understand someone who works for the greater good by being forthright and truthful—in other words, honest. Since they look for the shortcuts to get the best deal for themselves, they assume everyone is doing the same thing. It’s sad.

I was so happy to see a Camp Refuge story in the lineup! Your stories are so well written. I, too, like the idea of these short stories. The idea of a campground is that many people go through it all the time in a short amount of time. They don’t necessarily get involved in each others’ lives like the boys did here, but contact can be fleeting and meaningful. This format will allow this to be explored so much more fully. I find myself wanting more of Gus and Harry’s story. That’s how you can tell a story is a good one—it grips you in the very beginning (it was one of the things I taught to my students when I taught them how to chose a book/story that was ‘just right’ for them). Keep these coming, Wayne. You have a fertile, creative mind. I hope we get to visit with some of these people again occasionally in the future.

I said in a previous chapter that teaching is an art. I still affirm this. However, there is a lot of common sense in there that seems to get lost in the shuffle, especially from Administrators. And the higher up in the chain of command they are, they worse they seem to get. Granted these are individual examples. We have an issue going on here right now where the Superintendent has just resigned because he hired a guy for an administrative position with an acknowledged sketchy background in another state after the guy ‘promised’ not to do anything again. Guess what? He was recently arrested for molesting a kid in a neighboring city. In another issue, a local administrator is lamenting how he is being ‘forced’ to leave because of issues in the system. I just found out from a good friend who has rental property that the guy convinced him into renting property to the guys father and uncle. The two then terrorized the elderly couple below them where the husband was bedbound and dying. Police were called multiple times due to noise and harassment complain!ts. Then they stopped paying rent because they figured they couldn’t be evicted due to the moratorium. My friend finally did get them evicted and was left with over $15,000 worth of damage. Where was the administrator in all this? The guy who promise to take care of any problems? He spent the time avoiding calls and any contact. All this while my friend was fighting leukemia and fighting for his life (he is doing great now). It seems that power goes to peoples’ heads. I doubt that will ever change. Sorry. I didn’t mean to go on a rant there. Just found out about everything my friend was going through last night.

We don’t know. We don’t know the logic of the whole situation. The subplant and the Library are both located in the center of their respective floors. The floor space over the heating plant would get hot enough that Chuck (the Science Chair, our friend) couldn’t stand there for long—his feet would get too hot. This is a HUGE building with extensions on the back for the cafeteria, gyms, music rooms and the auditorium. There was also a basement level which was condemned shortly after I got there and only used for storage (condemned for asbestos, vermin, etc., not structural). Remember, it was part of the WPA program of the late 30s (Oh! The beautiful woodwork in the Library!) Both it and a sister school built at the same time have these massive towers. We are located on the East Coast. My husband, who is an amateur historian, told me that the sister school’s towers were built so observers could watch down the bay for enemy ships because the government was anticipating wartime. True? Don’t know.

Yeah, well that was part of why I decided it was time for me to retire after 31 years here. I had 35 years total in schools and Public Library service. I just couldn’t keep up with the speed that technology was changing and advancing. I love it and think technology can be wonderful, but I just couldn’t understand it fast enough. I still have trouble with Twitter! Teaching tech was part of my job and I can’t teach something I don’t understand myself.

It’s not that hard to lose a room in a big, busy school. In my last high school, we were complaining daily about the heat (averaging over 90 deg F every day—we tracked it with a thermometer) in the Library. We even filed grievances. Nothing happened until the year the Science Department was totally renovated and the classes were relocated all over the building. We wound up with the Department Chair (Chemistry) in half of the Library (it was OK because he was a good friend and we came to an understanding so that the Library staff could come in during classes to obtain items). He also knew about the heating problem, even referring to the Library as ‘The Sauna’ in school-wide meetings with Administrators from Downtown. HE filed a grievance when his classes were assigned to the Library and suddenly they were falling all over themselves to take care of the problem! Mind you, we had been doing the same thing for over 5 years at that point. Grrrrrr. 😡 But we were females. What can I say... Anyway, someone came in with a temperature gun and found an area on the floor where the temp was over 120 degrees Fahrenheit! They started a search on the floor below us and found a heating subplant that NO ONE KNEW ABOUT! It was designed to push the heat from the basement up to the top 2 floors (we had 4 (and a half) and the Library was on the 4th) and give it an extra heating push. How? I have no idea. I wasn’t there when they opened it, but was told that the steam that came out meant no one could enter for several minutes! They couldn’t even enter the room until it cooled off. Turned out to be a stuck valve and it was churning out the heat, under the Library, under hundreds of books, a wooden floor and wooden, built-in shelving from the 1930s when the school was built. They repaired the valve, but the heat barely went down in that area, but at least we were able to survive the winters without dying of heatstroke!

If so, she was probably charmed to meet the polite young man from her country who spoke with her in her native language. She pulled a ‘Grandma’ on him and gave him a bag of cookies to take back to school. Ralph may just have been adopted! 🥰

Teaching is an art! It is more than simply knowing the curriculum. It is knowing how to present it in such a way to be both interesting and understandable by students who have markedly different levels of interest, skill and ability in the topic. On top of that, everyone learns in a different way. Some are aural learners, who get it by listening. Some are tactile and need to touch or manipulate to understand. Others are visual and need to see demonstrations or displays. There can be combinations both within a classroom and within a single student. On top of all that, you have to deal with Administrative demands and parental and disciplinary demands. And keep up with planning, grading, etc along with your own family! And today, you HAVE to have a MSE and a specialty of some sort within a few years of starting. Teaching is extremely demanding of both time and heart. Few can do it well for long. It may be surprising to some, but most teachers burn out within the first 5 years. There’s actually not that many who make it to retirement (30, 40 years) in the classroom.

Just had to let you know how happy I am for you.

I thought the Coach was on Team Adam.

You say Adam may not have the option to fire Arlene because of contractual issues. Certainly didn’t stop her! However, I would still be concerned, if I were her, because she has obviously lost the backing of the Trustees. THAT could make her contract a fragile document. THEY could have more power to dismiss her. Here’s a question: If Arlene has been functioning as the Headmistress (sic) and Adam has now been appointed President, how does this hierarchy work? You can’t have 2 heads, especially when one hates and resents the other one. How much groveling will the Music and Financial Directors, as well as others, now do to save their positions? How will they throw Arlene under the bus (she forced me to go along with her or lose my job!)?

You love him. You always will. 50 years from now, even if you have a ton of family, he will still be there. It’s understandable you have been depressed, but I am glad you are finding your way out and finding happiness again. Daniel will always be there. I lost my Mom in 2012 and miss her daily, but I continue on by thinking about her daily. I speak to her frequently. I miss sharing things with her, but it has gotten better over time. I am not saying this should be the same for you. Everyone deals with grief in their own way. Just know that it will get better. We love you and have been just as sad and worried for you. I am happy you are taking those initial steps.

So happy to see this story back in the lineup! I had to go back a chapter to remind myself where we had left off! Kinda strange to be reading about Christmas as we enter summer, but this was a happy chapter filled with love. So happy to see you are getting back into writing again. Hope the house hunting is proceeding well.

I think you need to check your spellchecker!

😲 I was going to ask if any of these that you have posted in the past 77 (!) chapters could simply be typos, but then I continue to read them and...

I think Arlene is afraid she may have just hired the one who will push her out of her position. She just doesn’t know if he actually wants it or not.

I don’t know why McMillan should be freaking out. She went headhunting for him. She KNEW his position and theories on education.. I can understand her holding a meeting to explain and calm everyone down at the same time, but she really should have his back on this.

Of course, the Directors are against it. It means funding to establish such a program. It means hiring a Monitor or two or paying the current teachers extra to give up time to cover the Center. It means dedicating space to have the Center. They already don’t like having to give Adam such a large salary. They don’t realize that by setting them on their ears and spinning them in circles, he is about to make this elite, illustrious educational facility even more so.

When I was at the high school level, my door was always open. We had students coming and going from the moment we opened the door in the morning to the time all the students left in the afternoon. Same with teachers. At the elementary level, I tended to keep the doors closed only for noise control and to help keep the kids’ attention focused on what we were doing (younger kids are so highly distractible!). However, they always knew they could come and talk to me. I remember once in my first school, I had an Open Library period and 2 girls (4th grade?) showed up at my door. They were just short of tears. I don’t remember the details, but they were having some kind of problem in class and decided to come to me. I got them calmed down and walked them to their classroom and spoke with the teacher and we got the problem taken care of. Another time, a 5th grade girl told me of an adult man who was trying to ‘date’ her. I told her to stay away from him as much as possible, and I reported it to my principal so it could be taken to the next level (required by law). It always made me feel good to know the kids trusted me enough to come to me when they had a problem.

Except that the retiring Alpha has already nixed the idea of him administering Vinnie’s territory. He said his wolf has already retired and has kicked back and is relaxing!