How crazy is this?

Our current mayor just won a fifth term. This means he has been the mayor for a generation of Memphians. In that time he has shown much ego, little tact, questionable ethics, both personally and professionally. Prior to becoming the mayor, he was superintendent of the city schools (until he was involved in a sexual harassment scandal with an employee/teacher) for 6 years, I think. While mayor he had a child with an employee while unmarried, and his long-time girlfriend (Director of Public Information - basically his press secretary) got a transfer at double her pay to the city owned utility, never to be heard from again.

Last week the mayor submitted his resignation, effective July 31. Why? It confused people and rumors abounded. Perhaps a federal probe had finally implicated him. His resignation mentioned serving the city in a different way - speculation he wanted to return to superintendent of schools.

A few days later the mayor says he never resigned, and he wants the superintendent job (without a national search, as has been required). If he gets it, he will resign. If he doesn't get it, he will stay on as mayor. Many of the members of the school board owe him political favors. In fact, the last long-serving member who retired got appointed to a "newly created position" in city government at double her pay. Earlier this year the mayor appointed several of his bodyguards to "deputy director" jobs at over $100,000 a year, no experience necessary. At the same time he decided to close five library branches to save $500,000 annually. His claim was the branches were outdated and didn't serve the community, citing an independent audit. Turns out the audit DID say that, and put the blame on his administration's lack of vision and long-term goals.

We are equally screwed either way. They don't call him King Willie for nothing.

Smoothing out

Any time my prescription is changed, it always makes things worse as my body adjusts. This past week was pretty rough, early on. Some extra time at the Y, and quiet sullen time by myself helped a bit, and now things are looking a little less bleak. And that's the point, isn't it?

Mother-in-law might be home sooner than expected. Therapist at the home says she is doing much better. That will relieve some familial stress.

This week was Spring break for the Catholic schools, so the girls have been about, doing a lot of nothing. This weekend is the last hurrah - I expect Sunday to be an anxiety provoking day for them. Then things will be back to the routine.

Easter

A meaningful holiday for me, as I went through RCIA and became a Catholic 16 years ago. Since then I have attended the Vigil Mass every year, and some years also gone to morning services. A new (church) year, a rebirth, lots of symbolism. Plus I get to drink soda again. Excessively.

Today was a little extra special, though, with my mother in law coming over from the nursing home. The surgeon gave her another 4 weeks of physical therapy, but the therapist at the home thinks it is more like 2 more weeks, since she is progressing much faster than "normal" for a 73 year old. In other words, she is tough and dedicated to working hard, rather than just lying around and saying it is too difficult. The miracle today was seeing her get out of the car with just a walker (remember, just Wednesday we were wheeling her in a chair), come up the drive, carefully negotiate the small step and threshold to the house. She also used our normal bathroom (no elevated toilet seat, no handgrips, etc.). Her appetite was VERY healthy, too. I was really happy to be able to give her a good homecooked meal (roast turkey, mashed sweet potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and a baked pineapple and cheese casserole that was the hit of the day. She was tired when she left, but it was a normal day for the first time in a very long time.

Another little high point for me was breakfast. Usually we go to Perkins (a chain similar to Denny's but more upscale) on Saturday with the extended family. We didn't go yesterday, but after church decided to go today. Pretty long wait, and as we were waiting a young man greeted me by name. I knew I had taught him (before Memphis City Schools), and admitted that I didn't remember him. He let me know I was a sub for him when he was in 8th grade, and I was a favorite of his/theirs. Now he is a senior a Christian Brothers HS, looking at colleges. It really reinforced what I like about teaching - making a difference and being remembered. I probably didn't teach those kids more than 2 weeks total over the course of a school year, but I made an impact. I have to keep that in mind as I spend every day with my students now - - I am making an impact, and eventually it will come back to me when I least expect it.

I learned something new today

Folding a wheelchair! Took my mother in law to a post surgical inspection by the surgeon. She is healing really well (they took x-rays, etc.) and now she can shower and is free to begin therapy involving bending.

Then we took her to Starbucks. I resisted the recommendation to drive through - instead we took her inside with the wheelchair. It was the first time she has been outside (of the house, hospital or nursing home) for pleasure in almost 6 months. And she was tired afterwards, but not exhausted like she would have been a couple weeks ago just getting into the chair.

Now we can also check her out for a lunch or a 'field trip' to boost her spirits. I can't imagine seeing the same walls all day and not being mobile. And that will help all our spirits, too. I think we will be bringing her to our house for Easter (I started to type Thanksgiving since we will be having turkey), which will make it that much more special.

The Big D

One week gap. Well, them's the breaks. Haven't felt much like writing, being in a serious funk. You would think now that Spring Break has arrived that I would be all relaxed and beginning rejuvenation, but the opposite has taken place.

It kind of feels like having passed through some horrible ordeal, that was hard to bear while in it on a day-to-day basis. Now, instead of being relieved it is over, I am looking back and being amazed at the severity. And even though there is a week before I go back to it, I am horrified to have to return. A normal reaction, but more intense this year, I think because of the sheer number of students with "difficulties" that we have to deal with.

On a good note, the doctor doubled the strength of my prescription.

All gone

Snow is but a memory, been in the 70s for the past couple of days. School is lumbering toward Spring break, but the week is a chaotic scramble. Daylight Savings screwed up everybody's internal clock, and our school is hosting the West Tennessee Band competition. Which means no bells to signal class changes, no all-call announcements, no using the hall leading to or passing in front of the auditorium - ALL WEEK.

Plus we have to issue progress reports when all we have been doing is teaching to the test (TCAP as mentioned before), create an intervention lesson plan for State Performance Indicators that kids didn't do well on, based on earlier flawed assessments (more teaching to the test), keep the kids from damaging each other in the pre-break excitability, etc.

I registered for the Praxis to make me highly qualified to teach any subject through 8th grade. A hitch in licensing left me with a K-8 license, but only highly qualified to teach 1-6. This will fix that and allow my administration some flexibility to move me rather than surplus me. Best case scenario would be getting 4 periods of Algebra 1 and a computer class (which was waved in front of me 2 years ago, but I didn't have the test, and the principal didn't have the confidence to wait for me to take it). That might require me to take yet another Praxis to show I know Algebra 1 - - we will see.

Snow!

After a winter of doomcasting, we actually got some snow. Started about noon on Friday - nice that city schools had a scheduled half day already. By the time I left the gym it was still just light snow/rain...barely enough to wet the pavement. Then the Catholic schools released students at 1pm. Still, not even requiring the use of windshield wipers. By 2pm, though, it was the tough little kernels of snow, and starting to build up. Predictions of temps in the 20s overnight - well, I knew it was going to stick and be kind of deep.

Saturday morning 4-5 inches on the ground. Dogs and kids loved it, since it is so rare here. By the afternoon, temps in the 50s caused it to go away, except for the shady spots. So a nice change from the regular, didn't interfere with driving or school (I hate making up a snow day in May). And today that nice spring smell was back, with an overlay of melting snow (yes, snow does have a smell, and even more so when it is melting). The best part for me was walking the dogs about 9pm on Friday, snow still falling and that eerie glowing radiance I associate with snowfall. Can't explain it, but even though there are clouds, there is an ambient glow when snow is falling. The ground almost emits light, and the sky is milky just beyond the range of vision.

Oh, and I didn't win the Powerball. On the bright side, nobody else did, either, so $260million on the line for Wednesday.

Mother in law is now at the nursing home. Visited yesterday and today. Nice place...fish tanks and bird tanks (they aren't really cages) for the mentally absent to gaze at. Lots of plants, and the halls are open and wide (wheelchairs) but look more like a hotel than a hospital. She seems to be doing a lot better after not even 10 days - getting out of bed, slowly with pain, using her walker to get to the bathroom, etc. Much better spirits too as she heals.

Bleh

If you don't like venting, skip this one.

A full day of professional development, basically classes on how to be a better teacher, was mostly a waste. The speaker on parent communication was late, and his talk boiled down to "go to the parents instead of waiting for them to come to you." Which is fine if you are a black man (which he was), but isn't going to be a very successful (or healthy) strategy for me.

That day out of school kind of set me back, plus this is a short week - half day for students on Friday. Normally a good thing, but the pressure is on for TCAP tests (standardized tests that kids take annually - the scores also affect the measure of how 'good' a teacher you are) so I am feeling more behind.

Lots of hospital visits daily, plus a bunch of afterschool junk - open house last night with 24 hours notice (the administration got the date wrong the first time, so I cleared Tuesday night to find out at lunch on Tuesday that the day was actually Wednesday), more professional development tonight (Positive Communication). Mother in law is in a home now, for physical therapy. The home is probably the best one in the city, so we are lucky. Maybe a couple of weeks there.

To top things off, to add to my incipent depression, my cold is coming back. Been sniffling and coughing all morning so far.

Spring

Not officially, but the air is warm and has that smell - the anti-winter smell. The smell of damp soil and organic things happening. It is a different smell than just a thaw when it is still winter. This smell has things growing behind it. Daffodils, both large and small, are blooming. The forsythia is starting to yellow up, too. Flowering trees are budding. Going to be a hell of a shock when things drop to the low 30s tomorrow.


Mother in law is improving. Family (finally) decided they didn't need 24 hour coverage/visitation while she was in the hospital, so things are looser now. She may be home on Monday, which sounds insane following such a long surgery, but I am not a doctor (or a politician, or a cost analysist for an HMO).

Just 8.5 more days of students until Spring Break. No plans to go anywhere (thanks Memphis City Schools for making Holy Week the break), just getting caught up on housework, yardwork, exercise, etc.

An aunt gave us two tickets to the Tennis tournament finals today. For six years we have bitched about the idiots parking any which way, pulling into traffic without looking, etc, since the Tennis Center has about 50 parking spaces. We walked, and enjoyed the matches. Not even sure if they are noticed outside of Memphis. Back in the "old" days, magazines and others would throw tickets at me, thinking I was important to their business. Now I am, in theory, putting out one of the most important "products" to the country, but nobody is shoving anybody out of the way to shower me with anything, aside from abuse.