Summer is here with a vengence!

It seems like we have gone from a wet, cool spring to a hot, humid summer. Yuk! And I still have a lot of outdoor work to do.  I hate working in hot, humid weather.  In fact I can't really do it anymore.  I confine heavy work to mornings and light activity to afternoons.  That's that pattern for the rest of the summer.  While we do have a condo in Naples, FL, there's no way I could spend a summer there.  And by summer I mean May through September.   Definitely a winter month location for me.

And so it begins

Well....it's kind of like it never really ended but now it's official. The start of the campaign season that is.  With the official announcement of Trump's intention to run for a second term the loooooong, looooong, process of getting to election day now starts-at least officially. 

There's one consolation.  The republican side is decided.  All you have to do is turn off Trump every time you see his fat face on TV.  The bad news is there are lots and lots of democrats throwing their hats in the ring. 

Hang on. It's going to be a rough ride from now to November 2020. 

It's graduation time

I've noted with interest many K-3 teachers posing with former students who are now graduating from high school. It occurred to me that the students I had in my first five years of teaching can all be members of AARP!  The students I had in my first class of 4th graders are 55 now.  I'm still in touch with many of them on Facebook so that's at least one positive thing about social media.

Back to school for two days

I spent two mornings and a partial afternoon at Sandy Hook School recently.  I was working with the 3rd and 4th graders.  Years ago-1978 to be exact-when I was a 5th year teacher at Sandy Hook a member of the board of education arranged to have two slabs of shale rock trucked to the school.  Each slab contained dinosaur fossils.  Those slabs survived the reconstruction of the school and were placed in front of it. 

A parent saw the rocks last year and used Facebook to ask what they were and if anyone knew anything about them.  I chimed in with the answer to her questions and she asked if I could tell the rest of the school about them since I apparently was pretty much the only one around at that time who knew their history.

From there I contacted the math/science specialist and she thought it would be a great idea to tell kids and staff what I know since the study of fossils are in the third grade science curriculum.

We were going to do it last year but the weather conspired against us so this year we made it happen.

It was good getting back in the 'teaching mode' again.  Especially when kids are interested in something and what kid doesn't like dinosaurs?  Even the teachers hadn't really noticed them so they were interested too.  It was my third time this year working with kids at Sandy Hook. Grandson Nicholas will be leaving the school to go on to Reed next year so as I posted in a previous piece this brings to a close a 46 year run having a connection to a place where I spent so much time. But I still know people there so maybe I'll be back for other things in the future.  Otherwise maybe Reed Intermediate will have some use for me from time to time.  We'll see.

To impeach or not to impeach? That is the question.

This morning while using the rest room at the Newtown Country Club I heard snippets of a conversation taking place out in the dining room.  There were about 4 guys sitting around talking about Trump and all the impeachment noise being made these days.  I didn't hear everything but caught a few of the following bits and pieces:
"They won't be happy until they convict SOMEONE". (I presume they mean by 'they' the democrats.)
"Impeach for what? What do they have?"
"It's just a media circus."
That sort of thing.

I felt like running out and lecturing them on the meaning of high crimes and misdemeanors but my friends were waiting for me.

So here's what I think.  I think they're right-for all the wrong reasons.  Now is not the time to impeach.  Here's why.

1. As House leader Nancy Pelosi has correctly observed, not even all House democrats are on board with this.  If you can't get overwhelming support within your own party then it looks like a lost cause from the start.

2. But suppose somehow the House does impeach him. Then what?  It goes to the Senate-a republican controlled Senate.  Senate republicans have  remained stubbornly supportive of Trump even though he's such a despicable slob. So there's no chance he'll get convicted in the Senate.

3. Efforts to impeach could backfire on the Dems.  Witness the above conversation I overheard.  How many other people think this is just a witch hunt?  Why take the chance?

So what needs to happen is that Trump's opponents  do nothing but bide their time.  Let him continue to lie, trip and stumble his way through the rest of his term and keep track of everything like police analyzing a crime scene which is pretty much what it has amounted to.   Then when the next presidential campaign rolls around and a Democratic candidate emerges (looking like Biden at this point) you've got the ammunition you need to show Trump for what he is-the most corrupt, immoral liar to ever set foot in the White House. 

There's my two cents worth for the day!