Atomictumor

Yes, this is what happens when you have two kids and me stuck in a house for 3 weeks.

Last night, the Oak Ridge school board received next years budget prepared by Dr. Bailey, the superintendent, and it looks like its going to be a throwback to last years brouhaha which resulted in us putting bumper stickers all over town trying to protest the backwards nature of people determined to keep city expenditures low no matter what the cost is to the citizens of the town.

Last year, we bent over backwards trying to get people to recognize the simple fact that the reputation of the school system is a huge draw for people moving in, and gutting the schools is going to do some serious harm to the city.  It came down that the biggest cut would be the busses, and thoughts of elementary school kids walking a mile to the schoolhouse through barking dogs, meth addicts, and the projects chilled me.  I throught for sure we were going to have stories of some poor bastard of a 1st grader, run down by some high school kid on her cellphone, because neither of them could ride the bus.

But you know what?  It never happened.

Well, several things never happened.  While we got bumper stickers all over cars, we never had a chance to really bring the movement to a head, for various reasons.  We were all busy. When the first day of school came and went, and then the 30th, we realized that hey, it sucks, but its working out.

We were still fiddling with it when GAC got sick, and it became utterly unimportant, and finally we ended up losing the website when the ‘tumor moved to its hew host, and I never bothered salvaging the stuff.  If you hit the link to supportoakridgeschools.com now, you end up with a placeholder.

Whats the point, AT?

Well, the point is, its happening again.  Drivers education classes are out the window apparently, according to Netmom, because of an unfunded mandate by the state requiring that the schools hire a “wellness coordinator” to make sure that Tennessee apparently won’t produce fat lazy kids anymore.  Woot.  Bring on the healthy, active kids who run over you while trying to get to that frisbee golf game.

But, I’ve been down that road before, and I don’t know that I’m entirely eager to drive down it again (no matter how much instructional training the kids may or may not have had), because I feel like no matter how hard you try, and no matter what you say, or how much sense you make, you’re still dealing with the same hard headed dumbasses who disagree with you just because they don’t have anything better to do.

Which is still a huge minority to the vast amounts of people who just don’t give a damn.  They complain because they have to send the kids to school, and they say they want some more shopping in town, but they don’t think the city should build the place.  Yes, somebody has told me that.  And you know what?  I didn’t have the patience to set her straight.  The majority of people in this town will believe anything they’re told about local issues because they just don’t care about it.  What happens in town, they figure, is not as important as what happens nationally, or on TV.

Maybe I’m just cynical in my dotage, or I just have a defeatist attitude, or didn’t eat my Wheaties this morning, but I’m sick of dealing with people who just don’t try to care.

Ironic, huh?

Well, just a few more days to go while the kids are on spring break, and things are working pretty well.  Its an interesting challenge of my single parenthood to be able to put up with the kids in a smallish house for 3 days.

Sort of an endurance test.

Luckily, unlike the Cemestos people, the specter of sick has not passed over us.  3 weeks, kids home, and people puking, well, that’d be a whole other thing.

I’d like to announce that we did a lot of really cool things during spring break, but, we didn’t.  Other than the concert, and a movie, these three weeks have been pretty much bland, but I like it that way.

Gotta go, I just remembered that I like coffee in the mornings…

Two are sick this morning. The Missus and October both have a stomach bug. I’ve called in sick so I can clean up after them. So far I don’t feel so bad, save I can’t see straight at times because of the pollen in the air. Is you vehicle covered in a yellow dusting? Is that pine pollen or what?

We’ve been working on putting down pea-pebbles near the front foundation of the house. Wal*Mart has bags of them cheap @ $2.47 a bag. Well, it’s cheaper than Lowes. If I don’t start puking I’m going spread the thirteen I bought this morning when I went out for the necessary ginger ale.

The pancakes from Cracker Barrel are amazing! Unfortunately I didn’t order them. I went with my tried and true salty breakfast, but I won’t make that mistake again. October and Spotz brought home a few bottles of Cracker Barrel’s good maple syrup. I think I’m going to go drink it now. They’ll fuss at me in the morning, but it will be worth it.

This is a question for all you East Tennessee readers. When I say we went to the aquarium today, where do you think we went? Did we go to Gatlinburg, or Chattanooga? The Missus and I were talking about most folks we run across think of one place rather than the other. So I’m polling our intellectual hive to see where you all stand.

Ah, but the camera is in the van still. No pictures for you all, yet. Those of you who come here only for the pictures will just have to read instead. [Edit: I should have put this two sentence paragraph at the front. Anybody who’s made it this far is obviously one of our literate, umm visitors.]

[Edit: 3/28/07; 5:00]

The majority of folks think of the Tenn Aquarium in Chattanooga. I’m pleasantly surprised by this, as folks we spoke to assumed we were going to Ripley’s in Gatlinburg. We did go to the Tenn Aquarium by the way.