Hubby and the Dog

Authored by Leandro Delgado


When we got Direct tv for my husband at home I was finally allowed to get the Pomeranian I’d been wanting for so long. He told me that if he was allowed to get all his football channels I could get a dog and that’s exactly what I did! I love Penny and she’s my little football dog, at least, that’s what my husband calls her. He even got her a tiny little jersey to wear on game days which I think is a little bit ridiculous! I love him to death but he has some weird ideas about how things work. He says that now that I have Penny he should be allowed to get a Doberman which is what he’s always wanted but I say there’s no way a dog like that is welcome in my home. I’m sorry, but with Penny and the kids around I don’t want to take any chances with a dog that may turn violent, you know? I told him he got his football and he should be happy with that!

Everywhere there seems to be something "new"

It seems we are exposed to the "new & Improved" on a daily basis. We have all thought why did it have to be improved? I thought I heard last week about how that changing of the original Coke © recipe was all just a huge publicity ploy.

Somedays, I am just soooo tired of manipulation by the media. President Obama, who I respect and admire, said Hurricane Irene was an "historic storm."
Seriously? A category 1 hurricane historic? It was below 100 mph after it left the OBX heading for NY. As with any hurricane, it was a dangerous storm to be sure.
Eventually our language suffers when we continue to use words to impress when the actual event ought to be impressive in and of itself. Taking out a thesaurus to hype something, is just asking for people to ridicule it. The bigger and badder something or someone is made out to be, the more people will step up and challege it.
There were folks in NY city laughing at Hurricane Irene. Though I have never been in a hurricane un close and personal, I am pretty sure they are nothing to be laughed at. Even 85 mph winds have the power to take down an average house, telephone poles and a few roofs off shopping malls.

Tired of doing what we love

Finally, we have realized that true value of doing what you love...ZERO...ZILCH...NADA...We have known it for some time. We wanted to make a difference in someone's life. We wanted to influence others to change their world. On some level we were successful. We have been able to facilitate postitive choices and have seen improvement on an individual level.
Everytime things got tough in the classroom, we always had that one moment that always made it worthwhile. Like the parent who came up to me at graduation telling me "You gave me back my son." All I did was treat him like a person and that made the difference. My wife and I NEVER imparted ACADEMIC knowledge to any great degree. None of our students developed into Genius or Rhode Scholars (unless they already were), rather they became HUMAN. They learned that people care fore each other, that it is ok to make mistakes, that we don't like everyone and that tomorrow is a new day.
However, they were not able to apply this to standardized tests. They did show documented growth in the areas of Math and Reading, just not significant enough to warrant praise from the administration. We were unable to take a child 2-3 years below grade level and within 1 year have them at or just below current grade level.
We knew teachers who could do this...somehow they could take a SpEd student in the 7th grade (chronologically 8th) who was reading at a 4th grade level and doing math at a 5th grade level in September, and have that student reading and doing math 2-3 grade levels up from where they started.
But suddenly when that same student was in my room, they couldn't read 4th grade texts nor could they do 7th grade math---What a BAD teacher I was...
Yep, uh-huh...
Having spent my entire life in education of some form, I can tell you that for the most part it is all SMOKE and MIRRORS. Just an ILLUSION.
I started in 1995, making $29K a year. At one point I was making $50K. Generally I averaged $42K between 1997 and 2009. Currently I am making less than $40K,(for the past 3 years with no increases) co-pay insurance just for myself--NOT family, and contracted to work an 8 hour day. All this I did for the love of teaching.
Today I have NO retirement, no medical pension and no real job security. They are RIF'ing senior teachers who make $40K or more on a regular basis and hiring new graduates for $30K.
This year I have promised myself will be the last. At 51, it is past time for a career change. Time to forego love and latch onto income potential.
Teaching is a dying ART. It is becoming scripted and like housing, pre-fabricated to the point any one who is willing to follow directives without regard to the child's well-being, will be successful.

Learning the Ropes

Post contributed by Leonard Phelps

Owning your own business sometimes isn’t all it’s cracked up to be but all in all I’d say it’s a pretty good way to earn a living. My husband and I have our own specialty cheese shop right in downtown and I love being able to go into work everyday knowing it’s going to be with something I know I like to do. I couldn’t take one more day of spreadsheets! It took a lot to get the place off the ground and we spent over 6 months just renovating the shop itself. We went to http://WWW.TotalAlarmSystems.com, hired a guy to come fix the broken AC system and even someone to plant some really pretty boxwoods out front the window. IT’s been quite the journey but business has actually been great and we’re really starting to integrate into the neighborhood like I imagined we would! I love my husband and it’s really great being able to go into work every day and hang out with him and play with fresh, homemade
cheese!

Love don't pay the Edison bill...

Folks on another forum are encouraging a gainfully employed person, living in Denver, to quit his job and move back to Michigan. Chance are the person will NOT find a job in the very near future, and will be moving back in with his parents since he will have NO income other than a savings.

The questions were asked, "What is $ when you have family close to you?"

And "Family and Michigan, what more do you need?"

This was my response---


May be an income? A means of supporting yourself rather than sitting on momma's couch watching Transformers and mooching pizza from your friends and daddy?

I mean, family is great, but there comes a time in every human's life that they have to start their own life. Sometimes we don't get to chose where that is.

Not sure what vast job opportunities are available in Michigan, but my family and friends tell me there aren't many. The wind turbine business is VERY slow in getting off the ground and now King Richard is said to be destroying much of the fabric that made life in Michigan good. Though I hear Snyder is poised to take down those "evil, nasty, vile" unions that brought prosperity to millions of folks in the 1950s and 1960s.
Seems the companies are now dealing with employees fairly and unions are dinosaurs. Isn't it just wonderful that billion dollar companies FINALLY respect employees and pay a fair and living wage without the negotiations and backroom dealings with a union?


I hear there are several hundred jobs coming soon. Will these positions be filled with company people who transfer from out of state? More than likely they will be filled by desperate people who need income (because family and Michigan [or any state] isn't always enough to pay the bills) and minimum wage is looking really good when your kids are hungry, Edison wants their $500 payment on that installment plan because last winter's gas bill averaged $700 a month and it had to be put on it's very own revolving credit account. $7.50 is darn good, it is almost what unemployment paid 3 years ago when the company laid everyone off to move to Mississippi or Mexico.

Some will still hold the unions to the light and claim there is nothing but despair and corruption running through its heart. BUt think about this, who is getting the millions that the company is earning? Does it get reinvested? Oh contraire, it goes into the CEOs pockets while the company is run into the ground (because the tax breaks will end and the company will move at that time) so if anyone has to benefit, let it be the CFOs and CEOs. The employees will finally learn what it means to be grateful they have a job and might even gravel and turn on each other--doing ANYTHING to keep it.


So why not move back home... tell the country that $ doesn't matter. Americans do not need to be financially content, because we now have family to support us, because this generation no longer needs to rely on government entitlements because we are too proud for that--besides mommy and daddy is just letting loose of our inheritence a bit early--it's not a handout, it's a handup...

When does the snark ever slow down?

Only when we get over whelmed and seem to have 2000 and 12 things to do. We have been slacking with our responsibilities on the Snark site and it has been showing. Between a few sites / blogs and our infamous vehicle dilemmas, we almost missed the 6:00 pm rapture and the news of Da' Donald's untimely withdraw from the presidential race. Undoubtedly the withdraw was caused by Palin's desire to have Bristol Tippacanoe and baby too run for Arizona representative...As soon as the loop hole is closed that allows represenatatives to remain in office after an attempted assination while they FIGHZT for ANY recovery...

Can you hear me?

Every now and then, I get to participate in some good old fashion social intercourse. You know the kind, where all you can do is scream. It is almost painful, but you don't want it to stop. But if it goes on much longer you just know you're going to pay for it later...and aspirin is not going to help with the pain...
Tonight I engaged in just such a conversation. I immediately screamed at the computer when the person sent what I knew was a redundant question. One I had answered most clearly almost a year ago. In very great detail I might add. Surely I left NO doubt as to what it was we had shared--even though we had never met, nor had we experienced the event together at the same time and space.
Over the couse of the year, I followed their discussion on the internet. All the while wondering if this person was actually capable of empathy. I knew we had shared the same city growing up, different high schools, but I was confident we knew the same people--at least I knew the people they knew--it was doubtful they knew the people I knew on the other side of town. We probably even attended the same middle school ( they were junior high schools in the 1970s).
I tried to guess who this person was. They did not sound like anyone who would come from the same environment and end up as a scientist in the engineering field. Then leave that for education? They also would be at the same school I had taught at 8 years prior to their arrival.
Tonight they were on line at one of the forums I snark on. They PM me about a reference I made to a place near DTW. They ask if it is XXX crappy school. I say yes and name a few idiots that work there. They write back and say, OMG, when did you work there?
Silently screaming and pounding the keyboard, I ask them if they remember ANYTHING that is more than 24 hours old. I wonder if they remember their phone number, the names of their kids, their dog, or if they even know they have a dog and that they need to feed the dog.
When the guy asks if you can hear me now, it isn't a matter of having a good connection, it is a matter of comprehension and focus...Can that be any clearer?