WNBP: Springing Forth And All That Stuff

Yeah, yeah...I "sprang forward."  Is it just me or does that pesky clock-changing deal seem to roll around earlier and earlier every year?  I know it was extended at some point, but somehow it seems to me that they are sneaking it into the schedule in ever-increasing increments until I have to start losing and/or gaining an hour of sleep every other day...

The extra hour of evening daylight is kind of nice, though.  In fact, I was still so energized that I ran a few errands after school today.  Of course, this has put me even further behind schedule than I normally am on a Wednesday, but that just comes with the territory, I suppose.

Being behind schedule certainly reinforces the fact that it is Wednesday, though.  So why don't I just spring wholeheartedly into this week's Bullet Post?  Maybe I can breeze through it and make up a few minutes along the way...

*Today sure did feel pretty darned Springy.

*Sun, warmth...it was almost enough to make me shed my woolen coat and perhaps even crack a hopeful smile.

*They are forecasting another possible snow storm for next week.

*I'm going to face the sun for as long as I can and see if I can get some vitamin D into my system before we are all plunged back into the winter blahs again.

*The budgetary battles rage on in my school district.

*The board is publishing statements declaring their innocence in this fiscal nightmare.

*The teacher's union dilly-dallied over putting the matter of a cost-reducing furlough day to a vote, citing procedures that require more time before issuing a ballot.

*The superintendent said, "Sure.  I understand.  Take all the time you need.  Meanwhile, I'll just be over here decimating the music and gifted programs then making sure that I issue a public statement on the matter while I'm waiting."

*The union was forced to hustle off to vote, which took time out of their scheduled emails detailing where they felt the budget problems began.

*Everyone behaved about as badly and unethically as I've ever seen and it made me proud to be neither an administrator nor a member of the teacher's union.

*The furlough day was voted in, thus saving music and gifted programming.

*They sprang the details on us a few days ago.

*In order to decrease the impact on instructional time, we will not have parent conferences tomorrow, will get to come to work two hours late in a few weeks and leave school an hour and a half early on the last day.

*That last one is another way of saying, "Please enjoy coming back in later to finish marking cumulative folders and packing up your rooms during your unpaid time. Oh, and the schools will be shut down on and off over the summer months to cut further costs so good luck with scaling the walls and shimmying into half-open windows."

*And I'm still working without a contract.

*Let's just say that negotiations got a bit...sidetracked.

*It's enough to yank the spring right out of your step...

*I stopped by the mega-home improvement store on the way home.

*I need to do drywall repair.

*I do not look forward to drywall repair.

*But what if something happens to me?

*Then the people who come to clean out my meager possessions will see that picture I hung over the gigantic hole in my kitchen wall and forget all about how I probably shuffled off this mortal coil in some heroic endeavor involving the rescuing of infants and kittens.

*All I'll ever be remembered for is the picture over the hole in the wall that fooled no one.

*There's an epitaph to avoid...

*We all know the story of Athena springing forth fully formed and armored from Zeus' noggin.

*He Who...PROJECTS sprang forth onto the playground today fully clad in cardboard armor he'd crafted during morning daycare.

*I did not know that he crafted cardboard armor.  Much less that he was slipping away to don it before recess.

*It's his Anti-Bullying Armor.

*Look up "irony" in the dictionary.  There's a picture of a small boy charging onto a playground filled with 6th and 7th graders whilst fully garbed in cardboard armor.

*The other adults thought it was the sweetest thing they'd ever seen.

*Leaving Ms. Sheep the nasty job of explaining to HW...P that it isn't a good idea to wear cardboard armor on the playground because other kids don't really "get" that.

*It wasn't Little Einstein's opinion that his bus driver is unfair and overly involved in her passenger's drive-time activities that got him into trouble this morning.

*We probably could have overlooked that.

*It was really more the manner in which he chose to express that opinion.

*Which mostly consisted of single-finger salutes and comparison's to female dogs of great girth.

*That was the part that caused the principal to take note.

*And then come up to reenact portions of the show for me.

*Which was funny except for the part where it wasn't because I also had an irked 7th grader rampaging about the room.

*Situation contained and remediated.  I'm keeping LE under wraps for a while.

*Probably bad timing that he also got into a scuffle on the playground yesterday.

*Coincidence works against overly boisterous boys with strong opinions regarding bus driver ethics and fair play in football...

*Blood Magick (Bloodlines #1) sort of sprang off the digital page when I was looking for cheap reads the other day.

*Actually, what really caught my eye was Zombie Confidential (Bloodlines #2.5) because that one was a freebie and I was kind of without a debit card at that point.

*My new card arrived and I figured why not try the series upon which the zombie story was based?

*It's not bad.  But the zombie story was better...

*Definitely worth the couple of bucks I tossed down for it, though.

*Even better is the audio version of Undead and Unappreciated.

*These are short, but long enough to kill a week's worth of commuting.

*This is now how I measure audiobook length.

*And I love Queen Betsy.  She makes me happy.  

*Even if she can't exactly enjoy a nice spring day like I can.

*She makes up for it in awesome shoes.

*Talk about a spring in your step!!!


I'm not doing too badly, time-wise.  But I still think I should do a wrap up here.  I have, once again, failed to make the "eat dinner before 7:00" mark but I think that is just going to have to be a Wednesday Thing.  Sometimes you have to accept matters.

Tomorrow is another day with another chance for eventful happenings and who knows?  Maybe I'll get some spiffy new armor or find someone who wants to repair the giant hole in my kitchen wall without commenting on the fact that I have a giant hole in my kitchen wall.

Or something else will spring forth to surprise me.  You never know...

SA