Sandy Hook 5K Run for the Families

Many people showed up for the Sandy Hook 5K race Saturday morning.  Grandpa was on babysitting duties while the parents ran.

Some thoughts about the minimum wage

The Connecticut General Assembly voted Wednesday, March 26th,  for legislation that would raise the state's $8.70 minimum wage to $10.10 by January 2017.

I have some thoughts about this. 

First of all I find myself agreeing somewhat with those who opposed this law---but not for the reasons they state which is that such a law will put an undue strain on businesses thereby actually doing more harm than good because it will result in lay-offs.  That argument  is absurd.  We're talking about an increase of $1.30 per hour over the next almost 3 years.   Plenty of time to prepare.

But what is equally true is that it simply won't accomplish what the president and the rest of the democratic party say it will.  To think that the life style of those earning minimum wage is going to significantly improve is just as absurd as the idea that businesses will fail.

The root problem is that too many people do not earn the amount of money they need to provide for   themselves and their families.  The answer is NOT to keep giving them small, insignificant raises.  The solution is to provide opportunities to acquire skills that are more marketable and therefore valuable.  If such people choose to take advantage of these opportunities, then all well and good.  If they don't, then they get what they deserve-or more precisely-earn.

This way we still expect people to be personally responsible for their actions while at the same time lending them a helping hand. 

Now, doesn't that make sense?

Let's have a history lesson.....

See a pattern here?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Happy Spring

It's about time.  I'm sick of winter.  It's been a tough one.  Bring on the daffodils!

The Calm Before the Storm

A local TV news program recently reported that the town of New London, CT has built into its school calendar a day off for a Muslim holiday along with the long established Christian and Jewish holidays.

As far as I know, NBC30  was the only news station to report this and there has been nothing in local papers.  It seems to be just another 'filler' on a relatively slow news day--if you discount the hubbub surrounding the missing airliner.   But I have a feeling this is the calm before the storm. 

As this trend grows, and I think it will, there will eventually occur a national outcry.  I can just hear the tea party republicans screaming and moaning, veins popping out of foreheads, frothing at the mouth about the destruction for our cherished values and eventual takeover of Muslim 'terrorists' in our country.

The truth is if you must adhere strictly to the Constitution, there should be NO religious holidays built into a government service such as education. 

But the conservative/Christian/Judeo powers that be conveniently overlook that little fact. 

It's just another example of their profound arrogance.  They whine about government intrusion yet have no problem telling us how or what to worship, who to marry and what we can or can not do with our bodies.  They're a bunch of hypocrites. 

This is an issue to watch.  Should be interesting.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day one and all in honor of which I have immersed myself in green paint and intend to remain this way for the day.

One more of many reasons why I love being a grand parent

Here's a note I found in a bag I brought home from Brooke & Courtney's house. Brooke wrote the note because she's the one who I played in chess.  By the way, it was a stalemate but she nearly beat me.

Parental Responsibility

The Today Show recently aired an interview with a journalist from New Yorker magazine.  The magazine just published an interview of their own with the father of Adam Lanza-the person responsible for the Sandy Hook tragedy (or was he responsible?).

The journalist speaks very kindly & forgiving of Adam's parents-especially his mother-who had what you could arguably describe as nothing less than an arsenal in her house.  

The journalist points out that dozens of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health experts never picked up on Adam's psychosis so how could his parents?   But then the journalist goes on to explain how Mrs. Lanza had increasing concerns regarding her son's condition and took great pains to shelter and protect him.

I haven't read the interview in the magazine and I don't plan to but I'm not quite ready to exonerate Adam's parents to the extent that the New Yorker magazine has.  There is too much that could have-and should have-been done.

What do they want?

Recent news reports show the president continuing to draw fire for not taking a strong enough stand against the Russian interference in Ukraine politics.

Republicans like Mitch McConnell,  Lindsey Graham,  John McCain,  Ted Cruz, etc. are calling for harsher action. 

I have an idea.  Let's line these guys up, issue them M16s and send them over.  Let's see how long it takes them to back off their calls for more action.

They're idiots.  All of them.  One can only hope the nation comes to its senses in the next round of elections.

Thus endth my political rant for the day.

Decisions Decisions

So here are my choices.  With all the snow cover, the deer are slowly eating all of my rhododendrons, azaleas and holly.  I can either sit and watch it all disappear or break down and buy deer food and get them through early spring.  Deer food is a fifty-pound bag of corn and molasses. It costs $10 a bag and one bag lasts 3 days so that's the route I've decided to go.

Happy March

It's March 1st and spring is in the air...well, not exactly since at the moment it's 10 degrees and there's a big storm coming tomorrow night but believe me, spring is coming...eventually.  It always does. So cheer up and start planning your garden.

To learn more about the month of March, click here georgeswebpage.com/almanac

Odds and Ends

Two observations to start this gray February day.

1. The bill before the Arizona governor which would allow merchants to refuse service to gay people is yet one more example of unbelievable bigotry and ignorance at its finest.  It needs to be vetoed and apparently that is what's going to happen.

It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant so many people can  be. 

2. Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai refuses to sign an agreement to guarantee the security of U.S. forces serving in his country.  First, even if he did sign it, he couldn't enforce it.  Second, this is clearly an example of the U.S. putting armed forces personnel in harm's way in a country that does not support us.  The next course of action is exactly what the president has threatened to do:  get out...NOW.  When and if we detect terrorist activity, send in the drones.  That way no American soldiers or marines are at risk.

Thus endth my rant...for today anyway.

Happy birthday to daughter-in-law Jennifer.

Daughter-in-Law Jen's birthday today.  Hope she has a great day.

More about grand children (getting sick of reading about them yet?)

      On Friday I was a mystery reader in my two grand daughters' classes.  Throughout the course of the week I had to submit clues as to who I was.

Ten-year-old Brooke figured it out pretty quickly.  Seven-year-old Courtney was 90% certain but the clue where I said I loved to read stumped her.  Amazing.  With all the books around this house, she wasn't sure.

Anyway, it was a great afternoon and we had a lot of fun.  Now it's back to watching weather forecasts!

Who's this handsome lad?

Four-year-old Nicholas poses before going to his preschool's sweetheart dance. Handsome little guy, isn't he?  In fact I think he bears a remarkable resemblance to his grampy!

Courtney

I recently took this picture of 7-year-old grand daughter Courtney.  Along with her picture is an Acrostic Poem she wrote for me.  I'd say she did a pretty good job.  Wouldn't you?

Winter Fun

Sure, I'm getting a little sick of the winter too but there are occasional bright spots. 

Check it:

Snow-snow-snow

Sandi took a picture of my on-going effort to keep the driveway clear.  While not cleaning up outside, I've been experimenting with digital scrapbooking.  Click here to see the results georgeswebpage.com/photogallery

Snowy Day Activities (Besides snow blowing)

So what's there to do on a snowy day?  Plenty.  Here are a few things keeping us busy ('us' because Sandi and Linda wisely closed the office-even though it's tax season!)

To start I fed the birds, filled the wood box and moved the snow blower to the garage where I can use the electric starter and drive it right into the snow.

Then we watched two episodes of HGTV's Love It or List It show.

Now Sandi's is quilting.

I took care of some condo business and then switched to a digital scrapbooking project that will eventually be a compilation of the grand children's class pictures.  I'll design it so I can add to it as they get older.   I'll also post the pictures on the photo/video page of my website which can be viewed by clicking georgeswebpage.com/photogallery.

After lunch I'll give the driveway its first clearing. Then maybe again at about 5.  Then for a third time tomorrow morning.  

They're at it again

They don't get it.  They just don't get it.  What's it going to take for  Congressional republicans to realize they've lost this one.  They're hellbent on ruining the nation because they don't like someone.  Ideology has nothing to do with it.  It's personal.  But this too shall come back to bite them.

Second annoyance of the day

While town crews work hard to clear the roads (and knock down mailboxes which they did to mine), private snowplow drivers are right behind them plowing driveway snow into the road making it worse than it was to begin with.

Not right.

A (minor) dilemma

I try very hard to support local businesses.  I buy what I need as long as it's available from Newtown businesses.

But I have to say they don't make it easy.  After I cleaned the driveway from last night's storm, I went to Newtown Hardware to buy bags of rock salt.  It costs about $8 for a 50-pound bag.  I was told by the young lady waiting on me that it would cost $20 a bag.  I expressed my surprise and pointed out that I just bought some for $8.  She replied that that was for salt.  She was giving me Calcium Chloride.  She said they're the same. 

The teacher in me of course had to give her a fast mini lesson but it didn't matter. I learned that Newtown Hardware won't be supplying ordinary rock salt for the rest of the winter. 

So now should I spring for the more expensive alternative or go to Agway or Home Depot for the stuff I originally wanted.

I needed something now so I sprang for 3 bags but  there's enough of a cost differential to justify going elsewhere next time.  Too bad.  They couldn't give me a satisfactory answer to why they won't be carrying it. 

Snow Day

Monday, Feb 3rd was a snow day for Brooke, Courtney, Cole & Nicholas.  Since their parents still have to go to work, I had the good fortune  to spend the day with them.

So what do kids do when they have a snow day?  Well, lots of things and one of those things was to play school.  But that wasn't the only thing they did.  Here's a list of the other things:

-Play with cars, blocks and marbles.
-Play on Kindles and iPads for a short period of time.
-Build forts in the basement while grammy worked out and grampy cleared the driveway
- Brooke worked on her weaving project for a while while Nicholas and Cole played with cars & marbles.  Courtney and I played Words With Friends.
-Everyone ate their way through pretty much the whole day.

Teacher Evaluations

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy recently announced that the state would postpone for two years the implementation of a teacher evaluation program that would have connected teacher evaluations to student achievement. 

The reason for the delay is that many Connecticut school districts are struggling to get up to speed in what has come to be known as the common core curriculum.  It seems unreasonable to enact an evaluation program when the curriculum is still in development.

For as long as I can remember teacher evaluation has been a very controversial issue.  On one hand there are those who don't see any reason why a teacher should not be evaluated on the basis of student achievement.  After all, isn't that how it works in the private sector?  You're not doing your job?  You're out!

On the other hand there are those who insist a teacher's performance review should not be tied to the achievement of his/her students because there are too many variables over which a teacher has no control.  Things like poverty, uncooperative parents, learning disabilities and even a school administration who has it in for a given teacher makes that teacher destined for failure.

The truth is actually somewhere in between.  Lord knows that over my 32 year career as a teacher, lead teacher and department head I have encountered quite a few teachers who had no business being in a classroom.  Yet because of the difficulties in ridding the system of such people, they return year after year.

I also know of situations where very effective teachers are often given very difficult classes because it makes life much easier for a principal who would otherwise have  to deal with unhappy parents.  This very scenario has happened to me many times.  Would it be fair to base such a teacher's evaluation on the progress of a class full of troubled students?

It's a tough problem.  I personally don't think there are enough safeguards in place to be definitive about it.  On the other hand, there has to be a way to get rid of or at the very least retrain ineffective teachers. 

I know one thing for sure.  Teachers are under great pressure these days.  It's a very difficult job.  Yes, their job performance needs to come under scrutiny but let's do it right.

State of the Union

Did you watch the State of the Union address last night?  Neither did I but I saw bits and pieces of it and I heard several summaries of it. 

So the president is planning to finish his term by 'going it alone'.  He's planning to implement several initiatives without Congressional approval. 

On one hand this is good given Congress's intent to obstruct and destruct.  On the other hand I'm concerned that a president has the power to do this.  Oh, wait!  Isn't that exactly what George Bush did for 8 years?  Why, yes.  I believe it is.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Right? 

Fill 'er up!

Sometimes it feels like all I do is fill things.  Take today for example:
I filled the wood box
I filled the bird feeders
I filled the humidifier
I filled the car with gas
And then I ate lunch--more filling.

Flu, Snow, winter temps-It's enough to try one's patience.

 It is, as I write, snowing.  On top of that Brooke & Courtney have the flu, Becky & Jen while maybe not having the flu aren't feeling so hot and Sandi is up to her eyeballs with work and tax season hasn't even started yet.

I, however, feel fine....so far.  And I'm not even all that upset that the snow we're currently getting is going to require a morning of cleanup.

I've been reading a lot of Facebook posts where people are complaining bitterly about the snow, cold and illness but I remain upbeat because I am typing this in a nice warm house and I know sick family members are going to get better. 

Besides, there are worse things--far worse. So cheer up (if you haven't already). Spring is just around the corner.

Brooke's Birthday Party

Happy 10th Birthday to grand daughter Brooke

Click here to view a slideshow of Brooke through the years: http://georgeswebpage.com/photogallery

Updated photos-Check it.

Don't forget to check in on georgeswebpage.com from time to time.  I just updated the photo gallery.
Click here http://georgeswebpage.com/photogallery.