Hope springs again?

We haven't had a snow day in nearly two years at PHS, and we're friggin' due.

Maybe Friday (predicted ice/sleet for Friday morning from Winter Storm Q(?)) can finally pan out for us.

Just deliver

I read webcomics...I read a bunch of webcomics and have RSS feeds for a whole lot of them.

Some of these webcomics are just comic strips, just chuckles or laughs or little three-panel gifts to the world presented reliably day by day for me - and a few other folks - to enjoy. Those are the ones that I like.

Then there are the ones where the webcomic artist makes little commentaries with the strip, where we learn something about the artist's life, struggles, challenges. Those can get tiresome when, for example, we get notes like these...

From Jeph over at Questionable Content -

So:

Basically what happened yesterday is i drank an entire bottle of whiskey, stabbed myself in the hand (not my drawing hand), had some kind of delirious breakdown in the hospital, got stitched up and sent back home.

Today I go to see the hand surgeon about my hand and a therapist about my emotions.

I guess something like this was bound to happen eventually. The monsters finally caught up. But at least I am ok. I feel very, very bad about all of this and would really like to apologize. I'm sorry.

There will be some guest comics for a few days. Thank you again for your patience.

Rob and Xin of Erfworld give us posts from time to time that one or the other's health or other issues impacting their self-defined once-weekly schedule and - unintentionally, I'm sure - significantly mucking up the reading experience.

We missed last week's Nonadventures of Wonderella (site currently down and replaced with a two-word vulgarity from what I can tell) because the writer's all laid up.

I would like to think that I'm solidly in the thirtieth or fortieth percentile for empathy among people, but in the long run I just don't give a crap. Yes, I'm sorry Jeph is suffering. Yes, I'm sorry that Xin's having family/health/something problems. Yes, I hope Wonderella's creator (still tweeting) gets back on the horse.

But in the end, I want my daily (or thrice weekly or whatever) chuckles (and occasional pathos), and I just don't want to hear why you can't get them to me. Dance, monkey, dance.

Morning activities

I threw my back out yesterday spreading mulch in the garden, and I'm looking at a day or two flat on my back recuperating. Happy summer, moron. Lose some weight, get in shape.

Luckily, there's Nadal-Djokovic in the Roland Garros final this morning. Their last grand slam match - the Aussie Open final - went nearly six hours (and, yes, somebody uploaded the whole thing to YouTube), and this is a far slower surface.

The smart money is firmly on Nadal to win his open-era record seventh Roland Garros title, but I'm pulling for Djokovic to complete the career Grand Slam and be the first man to hold all four titles since Rod Laver in 1969.

Solid outing, guys...solid

Oh-for-twenty-seven...thanks guys...

As redemption, Ty Wiggington did actually hit a home run. With Wiggington's game tied at 2-2 in the 9th, the team is now 1-for-29

Pardon our whinings: Senate Bill 5 and my confusion

I didn't do anything wrong...

That's the phrase that Calen used to me last week when she and I were discussing Senate Bill 5, and I think that encapsulates my biggest problems with Senate Bill 5: I didn't cause this...I didn't do anything wrong.

Bear with me a for a second while I do a little bragging. I apologize in advance.

I was pretty much a straight A student in high school (at least about five or so A's every grading period with maybe a B here or there), finished fifth in a class of four hundred or so. I rocked the PSAT and was a national merit finalist, with a full-tuition scholarship to Wabash. At Wabash I did pretty well, graduating magna cum laude, and earning two awards at senior chapel (for the top student teacher and for outstanding leadership among our chemistry students).

I chose to teach high school chemistry.

I had a job before I got my diploma. I lived frugally in Terre Haute and waited a year for The Girl to graduate from IU. I got a job in Cincinnati, and we moved and lived within our means in an apartment near UC. The Girl worked two jobs two years to make sure she would have insurance. We've bought two houses and two cars and paid for two masters without taking any loans. All the while we set money aside for retirement.

I didn't take exorbitant bonuses.

I didn't take government bail outs.

I didn't buy homes I couldn't afford.

I didn't ruin the economy.

But I'm apparently paying for the people who did.

Since the law changed to allow collective bargaining in 1983, school districts have been making themselves as attractive as they could so as to bring in the supposedly best teachers so they could provide the best education for their students. Since then teacher salaries have, admittedly been increasing, as have the costs of benefits like health insurance. I wasn't the one negotiating for the vast majority of those twenty-eight years. I did, admittedly, take advantage of those higher salaries when I came to Princeton from Mount Healthy (I didn't move for the money, but the money certainly was better at PCSD than at MHSD).

I've taken my classes dutifully, gotten my masters degree, and I did it while spending hours far beyond those required by my teaching contract. I've taken on extra duties - the website, Pasta for Pennies, the newsletter - some of them for pay, some of them not so much.

And the state wants to strip my collective bargaining rights because I've...

Because I...

Apparently because the downturn in the economy that's putting my school district in tough financial straits is my fault.

To make that even clearer, lemme say this again...