Old Man Turtle

The Inevitable

So I just have to say, that the School Board has quite a job to do. I think that it has to prove a lot. I also think it will fall flat on it's face. The inevitable progress has not been shown from projects past. So I'm wondering how long does the Board get a pass, and how long before people start to question them. Just to help anyone who has suddenly become more civic minded...

BEAUFORT COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION:
Regular meetings of Beaufort County School Board are broadcast live 2^nd Tuesday of every month at 6 PM. Meetings are unedited replayed at varying times in the schedule.


Copied straight from the WJWJ website. Watch. Listen. Learn.

Nothing Really

Well I don't really have a lot to say. It's one of those mornings, the kind where you wake up two hours before you have to, try to go back to sleep, but yet still feel tired. That's me today. The referendum passed, I guess that means a new shiny laptop in my future. Actually, for those that support the referendum, and this is a person that speaks as a parent AND a spouse, you just don't know what you did. I can't feel good about it, but I understand. Just don't come back to me, or others like me when what they promised, doesn't come to pass.

Maybe people are just planning on staying a few years, then moving when they can. That's what I think anyway. Most people find out that this really isn't paradise. But that's just me. Now I got to go dig up some coffee or something, sooo tired.

Camp Fires

I have an older brother who is 5 years older than me and a cousin who is 4 years older than me. I also have myriads of sisters (6) plus a younger brother but this isn't about them. These two were basically hell on wheels, and when they got together it only got worse. Of course I was the victim in many of their misdeeds because I was younger and for some strange reason, wouldn't rat them out. My cousin is now a fugitive of the law, I think they want him in 4 or 5 different states mostly on drug or DUI charges, my brother was smarter, he grew up.

I'm reminded of one of my first childhood memories of the two (my brother and cousin) together. See we went to dad's house on the weekend. And our cousin, my father's sister's kid, liked us, plus I'm sure she couldn't wait to get rid of him, so anyway we were all at my dad's house, except my dad wasn't because he was going out... if you know what I mean. (the night time was his time, during the day we were all his)

My father left us in the care of older sisters. I was probably 3 or 4. Anyway these two geniuses decided to make a camp fire, in my father's bedroom closet, with his Playboy magazines. Can you imagine??? I was in the room because my sisters had their boyfriends over or what ever. And I can hear them with matches... MATCHES, trying to start a fire. At some point they went to a lighter, and I remember seeing a flame along side my dad's dresser. Lucky for everyone that this two idiots couldn't get anything ablaze... this time.

Well my oldest sister comes in to check on us and.... she says "I smell smoke" she then calls my other sister and confirms that yes, she too smells smoke. The "I smell smoke" thing repeated again and again. I mean so much so that it's a bit of joke all these years later. "Do you smell smoke? I smell smoke. What about you?" "No I don't smell smoke." Maybe the beating they got from it just made it even more memorable or maybe it's just me.

Really, my childhood would probably not win any awards. Often times I got beat on because of something my brother did, or everybody would get a beating, sometimes for nothing. Then again, he might not do anything, and that was why my brother was always willing to at least try anything, because you really didn't know what kind of reaction you were going to get out of the old man.

But I love my dad, and he was going through some things, mainly my mother leaving him, that I couldn't fault him for. Back to my brother, it's crazy to think about now, the egging houses, the ummmm knocking on doors (racial slur, involving the "N" word), the bottle rocket wars, the making of bombs, Setting all kinds of things on fire, not to mention all of the grief and physical harassment brought on me, that I even lived to make it to this point.

But it makes me who I am and I don't think I'd change anything... well maybe not so much trouble from my cousin, but really I don't even think I've seen him in 15 years, so even that I wouldn't change.

The Gayest Ever

I'm not a homophobe in fact I have gay friends and they would agree, the 7am hour of the Disney channel on the weekends, has got to be the gayest hour ever. You wonder why I'm watching the Disney channel anyway? Because I have a two year old, that's why.

We start out with The Wiggles, the Australian quartet that have swept the nation. Jeff is sleeping, Anthony is hungry, Maury is playing music and Greg doesn't really do anything. This group would be ok, if it were not for Captain Feather Sword, he is the Antichrist. Him and maybe Dorthy the Dinosaur. One zucchini, one tomato too...

The next show is Johnny and the Sprites. I can not stand this Broadway wannabe. What kills me is the way Johnny pulls out the guns... all the time. You know what I mean, when some one uses their hands as a gun. This is something I simply cannot forgive, and something very prevalent in Broadway. I don't think someone could walk a Persian cat on a rhinestone leash across the stage and look gayer than this show.

The kicker? My daughter absolutely loves both of these shows, LOVES them. So I have one hour if gay on TV. I'm ok with that.

The Cat Murders

All this hubbub about a cat, I don't know. I mean really his side of the story has yet to be heard, but in paper he looks guilty as hell.... but that is on paper. Let me tell you about a teenage boy (me) who loved animals.

One day I was in a hurry, and I wasn't watching what I was doing. Meanwhile a momma cat had her kittens under the porch steps. In a hurry, probably to see my girlfriend I run down the steps, and on the last step I feel a crunch. Yep, I just killed a kitten. Stupid me, for not thinking, but he was still dead. That crunch is unforgettable.

Never mind that I used to watch my brother shoot cats (we had a feral/tame colony) for fun. In fact he'd shoot them, then pet them a couple of hours later and you could feel the BB's under the skin. Yes I think that is horrible, but that does change the fact that it happened. And cats are just like that.

Back to the dead kitten. I took it over to my grandma who lived with us, and she pronounced what was already painfully obvious that it was dead. But it really didn't mean much to anybody around and I think that is in glaring contradiction to what happened this week. My grandmother made her living off of dead animals. And still to this day I can remember the eyes of deer moving back and forth as she had me cut off the antlers (she was a taxidermist). This was absolutely nothing at all. In fact the momma cat had 5 more kittens, and there was never any shortage of cats anyway.

So hold out until you know the whole story. You never know who might be a cat killer.

Schools

The big day is tomorrow... the referendum that is. I can tell you where I stand, because it is a resolutely no position, my wife, a Beaufort County School District employee is a yes position. She knows all the problems with the district, she's even experienced them herself, which is unfortunate. But in her defense more schools mean more jobs, so maybe she'll find a place she likes. Still the referendum of 2006 didn't stop the mobile units from coming. So at my house, it is a standstill. But we haven't come to blows or anything... yet.

Meanwhile I'm trying to convince my wife that maybe private school is the way to go. Because we've seen what happens when we left our older daughter who isn't very school minded, with essentially "dead weight" teachers. And maybe with our second one, we'll stave off any negative feelings, and believe it or not a teacher in the same school as her child is a curse, not a blessing, especially when you consider the dead weight issue.

So I vote no, my wife votes yes, and we both consider taking the problem out of the hands of the school board completely by going private... Now I just have to find a way to make this affordable or even possible.