another tragedy strikes......

Once again, the death toll rises at our local high school. Tuesday morning, 3 teens, 2 of them brothers, were killed in a collision with a school bus. This only minutes from our home, and at the time when my kids bus was picking them up--so imagine how frantic I was until I found out that it was not their bus......
Anyway, my point is this. Why do parents let their kids drive to school when a perfectly good school bus is available? It's free--actually as taxpayers, we do pay for it, but...----it's available, it saves your gas money.....
And you do not have to get the phone call telling you to get to the hospital to ID your kids.
The news reports moan that the road is a dangerous one and something should be done. Yes, it should. In the form of drivers watching what the hell they are doing. In the form of slowing down, watching up ahead for situations you may need to deal with defensively. Does anyone teach defensive driving anymore?
I have also heard that seat belts may have helped. Ummmm, DUH! Why would anyone get into a car and not wear one? Yes they can be uncomfortable at times,. but they beat being dead.
As Earl Pitts would say, WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!

Whish year of the '80's are you?

I'm a 1983.

Here's the link:

http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=117423N

Have fun y'all!!!!!

updates on drama.......

For anyone who knows me and my family, you know there has been a bit of drama in the past month or so. Actually it's been quieter since the drama queen walked out about 3 wks or so ago. She has maintained some contact with her grandma on her dad's side, but not a whole lot. Well last night she called her grandma and asked her for $1000 to get a car. Grandma promptly told her she didn't have it. Kris said she's pay her back, but Grandma said that wasn't the problem, the problem was she did not have it to loan. Mention of grandma taking out a loan for it was made and rebuffed, based on the fact that apparently the hospital is getting ready to go on strike again, and the financial institution would not loan it under the circumstances. Apparently momma took Kris car shopping yesterday.
So daughter shows up at Ron's work this morning, just chit chatting away. Ron was waiting for the hit for money, but it didn't come. Good thing, we don't have it anyway, not that we would lend it for that. Sorry ya'll I do not believe in teens driving. but especially not when I do not feel the teen in question (and this includes about 90% of them) is responsible enough to be behind the wheel. Heck I don't think most adults are mature enough, including me sometimes.
She says she will probably come over Wed. night this week. I told Ron, fine, but she needs to leave the drama at the door. And that I am not going to absent myself from her presence just so they can chit chat. In other words, if I feel like sitting down in my living room and participating in whatever conversation or show is going on, I will. Not to be rude, but not letting anyone run me out of my home, or any room in it. I can be nice and pleasant and chit chatty, as long as she maintains the facade, but if it gets out of hand, then I will just as politely tell her to stuff it while she is here. No name calling, no cussing, no snide comments.
He did say she seemed to have calmed down some from when she was here last. I hope that means that she has done some thinking and growing up, but we'll see. I will continue to pray, for her and me, and hope for the best.

classic......

"The difference between you and me is I make this look goooood."
Yeah MEN IN BLACK is on in the next room. Big improvement over BATMAN RETURNS, which was apparently the movie of choice earlier. Which was why I picked that time to put laundry away and listen to the late Porter Wagoner on Grand Old Opry Live on GAC.
When the best movie on all weekend was Animal House--and I can;t watch that in front of the kids......
When I've been sick for a week and and damn tired of it----I can deal with just about any of it except this hacking to the point of throwing up cough.....Doggone antibiotic doesn't seem to be doing anything. Doc says with my BP I am not to even think about taking any sudafed or related product. After two days of nothing but anitbiotic and nasal spray, I said screw it and went back to the sudafed as well. Breathe and have my BP shoot up dangerously, or don't breathe and my BP gets better, but I don;t. What a crap shoot.
Anyway, it's not contagious, so I suppose we're going to church tomorrow, then on to mom's for Sunday dinner of some sort--my brother's b-day is Tuesday, so we'll get together tomorrow and tell him how old he is getting----36 this year.
The good thing is, we slept in today--till about 10 or so---and then got up and cleaned, and now my house, except for my bathroom and bedroom, look great. Well ignore the supper dishes in the sink---I've already run the dishwasher twice today, and received my water bill, and I will probably go in and run it again before I go to bed in a bit.
Ben had a friend over to stay the night tonight--and believe it or not they have been asleep for at least the last half hour or so. I'm getting ready to boot Kate to bed, Chris just went and Shellie is long asleep.
And I'm going. ATT won't let me access their site to make my cell payment tonight, so to heck with it.
Night all........

it sucks to be sick

but that is what I get for standing out in 30 degree temps at 5 am yesterday unloading a 53 ft trailer for work. Actually it started Sunday, when I became very stressed out at work. Getting sick seems to be the way my body reacts to stress of any kind anymore. It's like it really lowers my immune system or something. So today I woke up at 4 am and right off the bat when I hit the bathroom, I coughed up green stuff, and blew yellow stuff and blood out of my nose---for those of you with weak stomachs, I really do apologize. but my stomach was pretty weak when it happened. Then I got to work and got to work on putting out the cologne sets. Yummmmmmmm.....

Not.

My roommate from college got it right when she called me today and said what's with this work stuff? Why can't we be independently wealthy? It's all our parents' fault for not be rich enough to allow us to play through adulthood...........

Believe me, that was ALL sarcasm.....LOL....

Well off to surf some before getting the kiddoes ready for trick or treat........

Happy Halloween y'all......

The saga continues.......

Teenage drama queens........should be outlawed.......

At any rate, we apparently are the cause of the 17 yr old exiling herself once again from this house. She spoiled for a fight Monday, didn't get it, proceeded later on to mouth at me, not talk to me, so when I wouldn't fight, just calmly told her to talk to my face, not around me like I wasn't there, she got all shades of p.o.'d and I finally told her if she wanted to act like a little b****, then fine. And I shut up. She called me a b***** and called her mom to come get her.

Now her dad followed her out the door and told her and her mom a few truths about themselves, and her mom has threatened to beat my ass if I ever talk to her daughter that way again. The child has alienated her grandma, the church secretary, her dad, her sister, etc. Prayer is the only thing we can think of to help. I am, as usual, 100% at fault according to her. Whatever. Her stepdad gets this too, so at least I am not alone. But she sees me as the evil influence. Again, whatever.

It should blow over soon, at least until she feels put upon again. She can;t handle not being the center of attention.

Me, I'd just as soon read.........

WTF--part 3000

The below letter, deleting pertinent names and locations for obvious reasons, is in the mail to the middle school principal, the Superintendent, and the president of the school board. This in in response to a letter that I refused to sign and send back----the school is no longer going to give students a grade of zero on any assignment, because it can "be devastating to the 6 wks grade". Instead, the student is going to have to do lunchtime detention with the teacher to complete the assignment, and if they do not complete it within 2 detentions, then they have to do afterschool detention until it is completed. I would happily provide the text of the letter the school sent home, but my scanner is s***.

"I have read the letter on zero tolerance of zeros that was sent home to be signed by the students and parents. I am not signing and returning it for several reasons.

I do NOT agree with the decision by the Academic Teams leaders/teachers. I firmly believe that there should be personal responsibility, not bail-outs by the staff. While exceptions to every rule do occur, and should be dealt with on a case by case basis, I do not feel a blanket bail-out should exist. I believe this relieves students of being responsible for doing and turning assigned work in on time. I do not feel this is in their best interests, as they will not be allowed to do this in high school or college. It is giving them a false sense of security, that they will always be given extra time or extra chances on anything, and life is not like that. My children are taught this from an early age, and have had to bear responsibility when, by their fault, they have received zeroes or lower grades due to an assignment not being done as it should.

I find this policy to be unacceptable for that and also for the fact for many students, the school bus is their only way home from school. Should it get to the point that a child should be forced to attend after school detention to avoid the zero, then how do they get home? Many parents work, and may not be able to get away to ensure their child gets home.

I have talked about this policy change with several parents as well as those in the workforce and those involved in higher education, most notably a Marshall professor with 25 years of college-level teaching experience. All have said this policy is a very bad mistake. As stated earlier, there are no do-overs in college. No one is going to check over a student’s shoulders to make sure that he/she is doing their work. It is up to the student. It is called personal responsibility. If a child must receive the zero to get the point across that doing the assigned work is mandatory to pass the class and move on, then so be it. If we do not teach our children this lesson at a young age, they are certainly not going to learn it when they get older. When are they supposed to learn this?

Obviously there are those parents who simply do not care, nor wish to be bothered with the details of their child’s education. Shame on them, but the school system simply cannot afford to pander to the self esteems and fragile egos of students and parents by promoting the “no-zero’s” standard. In doing so, the system is merely protecting it’s own interests, not those of the students, who will one day be forced to realize that the “protection” they were given in middle school is gone and real life is in front of them, and they are not going to be capable of dealing with it. Playing with the numbers to make one’s institution appear to be meeting standards is, simply put, fraud.

I would ask that the committees or whoever made such a decision would rethink it. I am also forwarding a copy of this, as well as the letter that was sent home, to the school board. While I am sure they have had a hand in approving this, I am making them aware of at least this parent’s feelings on this.

Thank you,"

Think about it----how many do-overs do you get in life? How many people----friends, relatives, coworkers, etc., do you know who never had to be responsible for anything growing up , and now are faced with the horrible realization that no one is going to do it for them?

I fear greatly for the future if this kind of crap is not stopped.