The To-Do List

Last Monday marked the end of a very uncomfortable week at our home. On the 4th of July our central air conditioner broke, leaving us exposed to the oppressive summer heat. It was a failed weld on the heat exchanger that allowed all the Freon to escape. The part was still under warranty, but a replacement had to be sent from the warehouse and could not be installed until Monday. The house is cool now and everything is back to normal.

Yesterday I was able to access my AP Chemistry scores from the College Board website. Almost all of my students did quite well. Those who did not achieve as I would have liked were no surprise. On a national basis, somewhere between 50 and 60% of students taking the exam get a high enough grade to receive some kind of college credit for taking the class. In my two classes almost 80% scored this well. Every year I invite all my students who score well enough to receive college credit out to dinner sometime during the next school year. There will be 30 students who qualify from this year’s class. Last year 15 out of 24 students who qualified went to dinner with my wife and I in March. I would like to have the dinner earlier this year, maybe as part of the homecoming week celebration in September.

Tomorrow, a new garage door is being installed. I have spent the last three days cleaning out the garage of all the accumulated junk so the door can be installed. Most of the junk in the garage consisted of left over materials from our home remodeling; including 17 interior doors that were replaced. The old doors were solid wood with an oak veneer. They proved too difficult to refinish and we ended up replacing all of them instead. I hate throwing anything away, so they were stored in the garage in the hopes of finding some use for them. I wanted to cut them in half and use them for wainscoting in the finished basement, but my wife said no. I ended up advertising them on Craig’s List and found someone who wanted them to build a privacy fence in his back yard. I kept one, along with the two parts to an old vanity to make a new workbench. After the doors were removed I purged four garbage cans of junk and useless building materials leaving a clean, organized, and almost empty garage. With the instillation of the new garage door tomorrow most of my summer projects will be complete.

My summer routine has slowly evolved. I get up at seven and have coffee and something to eat; on the deck if the weather permits. I work on school related things for next year for about one to two hours on my laptop—on the deck as well—then go for my daily bike ride. When I return I check my blood sugar, eat lunch, and shower. The rest of the afternoon I work on my summer to-do list until dinner. Once a week, usually on Monday, I go out for breakfast, go to school, work for several hours, then run errands. On those days I usually skip the bike ride. My next home project will be to order some mulch and spread it around where needed in the yard, and then make some needed repairs on the storage shed. If all goes well and my wife doesn’t add any new jobs to my list, I should have two or three weeks of complete rest before the grind of a new school year begins.

Summer's Half-Way Point

The 4th of July is my birthday. In my younger years, the 4th was always a family get-together. The event started at the home of my mother’s cousin who had a home on 2 acres and attracted from 50 to 60 relatives. Most of those people are dead now and as my mother’s cousin became ill the event broke up into several smaller parties. My uncle took over about 25 years ago; the attendance becoming my grandmother and her 5 children, 20 grandchildren, and 12 great grandchildren. Twelve years ago we stopped getting together on the 4th and replaced it with a family reunion later in July. This is run by my two uncles on my mother’s side, and will eventually fall to their sons when they leave us. Only 3 of my grandmother’s 5 children are still with us, my mother and one of her sisters having passed away. Since the death of my older cousin in a car accident 30 years ago I have been the oldest of the grandchildren. This reunion is literally the only time I see some of my cousins because they live out of town and don’t come in for Christmas. We get together again this year on July 25th and I am looking forward to it.

Most teachers at my school consider the 4th of July holiday the half-way point in the summer vacation. We just received information about picture day, July 23rd. Every summer, on the last day of summer school, the school schedules new ID pictures for all students. The students come in and have a new photo taken; the photo is used to generate a new student ID for next school year and doubles as their yearbook photo. At the same time, students pick up their new schedule for September, and find out who their teachers will be for the next school year. Students who have a problem with their schedule, or just want to change it have an opportunity to speak with the registrar. Needless to say, the line outside her office is 20 deep for hours.

The next several weeks after ID day I will field numerous calls to have students moved from one level of Biology to another. Usually, the parent wants her son or daughter moved into Honors Biology. The reason given for the placement request is that the feel that their student belongs in a higher level. In reality, it is because they have found that their son or daughter has been placed in a particular teacher’s class and, because they have heard bad things about this teacher, they want them moved to another. The registrar will not move students because of a request like this--only the principal has the authority to change teachers within a level, so the parent contacts me (department chairman) to request the level change; which would result in the teacher change they wanted in the first place. We are aware of this ploy, and I turn their names over to the Honors Biology teacher who makes the final decision--which is almost always no.

I usually volunteer to help supervise the picture line on this day; giving me a chance to visit with former students as they line up to have their photo taken as well as catching up with colleagues I don’t have contact with during the summer. Teachers are required to “volunteer” for two activities every school year, and since we all have to come in to have our ID photo’s taken anyway, my attendance takes care of one of these. I also hope to meet with the new Physics/Chemistry teacher on this day and get her up to date with the Chemistry syllabus. She has already meet with the Physics teacher and been brought up to speed with him. If things go well I will be home by noon.

$6.26

For those of you who are pay attention to those things; this is my 100th post.

The beginning of the summer has been very productive so far. I have completed several minor projects, began my summer riding program, and arranged a short vacation for my wife and myself.

The school community suffered a tragic loss when a sophomore girl was killed in a car accident on Memorial Day. She was not one of my students, but everyone tells me that she was a wonderful young lady. The wake was so crowded that people waited in line for almost an hour to view the body and speak with the family. The accident occurred during a thunderstorm, her boyfriend losing control of the car on the wet pavement. He was not hurt badly, but she received significant head injuries. Reportedly she never came out of the coma. I can’t imagine the pain her parents must be going through.

My yearly physical resulted in my doctor recommending that I began taking insulin for my type II diabetes. I just began taking 30 units of Lantus every day. Actually, tasking the insulin was my idea, my blood sugar being more and more difficult to control with oral medication. When I mentioned to my doctor that I thought it was time to begin the Lantus, he agreed and wrote my first prescription. After a week I am comfortable with giving myself the injections.

The weather being rainy last week, I cleaned out the garage--one of the major items on my to-do list. I still need to set up my work bench, but first need to get rid of 17 interior wood doors that are left over from the major remodel we did over the last three years. As soon as these are gone I will use the old vanity to make a base for my new work bench; maybe keeping one of the doors for a bench-top.

The last three bike rides I took resulted in me getting soaked when a sudden thunderstorm showed up. Each time the weather report said it would be fine and each time I got caught in a downpour. Today it was overcast and the predictions were for strong storms in the early afternoon, so I stayed home and planted some perennials around the house. As you might guess, not a drop of rain fell.

My bike riding has turned up some interesting finds this year. In the past ten years I have found cell phones, a police scanner, various tools (screw drivers, wrenches, and even a rather nice aluminum carpenter’s square), CD’s and the odd change as I ride. I have been able to return every cell phone to its proper owner and the police scanner to the city. I have kept the tools, CD’s and change for myself. This summer I have found another cell phone and will return it to the owner this evening. I managed to find the owner by calling the last number he dialed. Last week I found a $5 bill in the gutter along one street I bike on. Another day I found 85 cents (three quarters and a dime) along the curb in front of a home. Yesterday I found another 41 cents in various places. The total for the year so far is $6.26. This type of minutia occupies my mind in the summer; relaxing me and relieving the stress of a hectic year.

Tomorrow afternoon I take my wife to the eye doctor. Afterwards, we plan on meeting my friend from the Theology Department for an early dinner. On Thursday my wife and I leave for Michigan on a short vacation--leaving my adult daughter in charge of the house in our absence.

The tulips I planted last fall are in full bloom today. I am on “Easter Break” as are most other Catholic schools in the area and I had hoped to get out for a bike ride every day, but cold rain has been falling since early this week and I have been inside working on the computer every day. I have accomplished much this week, but still have a few things to do. On the first day of the break I finalized my search for a new car, trading in my 2001 Saturn with 118,000 miles for a brand new 2010 Honda CR-V. This is the newest car I have ever owned; having only 11 miles on the odometer when I drove it off the lot. On the second day of my break I went to city hall to register my new vehicle and obtain a new city sticker, then meet with my insurance agent to arrange to transfer the policy. This was followed by a shopping trip to buy some new clothes.

We are looking for a Physics teacher again. The one we hired last year has a PhD and was hired by a local university for next year. We had hoped that he would stay for at least a few years, but that was not to be. Finding a suitable replacement, even in this time of school staff cutbacks, will be a problem because of the fact that our AP Physics is Calculus based.

Aside from the Physics teacher I do not think anyone on the staff is planning on leaving or retiring this year. The job market for teachers is tighter than I can ever remember. Almost no schools are hiring additional staff; almost all are cutting to save money. The Chicago Public Schools are facing a deficit that could be 1 billion dollars, if the worst of the predictions come true; and many local suburban districts face equally crippling financial woes. The state will not be able to bail out the districts this time because of their own multi-billion dollar deficit. The only solution will be cuts in programs and an increase in class size. The teachers unions would like you to think that a small increase in taxes would solve the temporary problems—but their past greed has caused this problem and tax increases will not be able to make things right. Their pension entitlements alone will bankrupt the state in a few years if these obligations are not revised. It is altogether possible that most of them will never see their pensions funded in full. Thankfully, my retirement is not dependent on the state’s ability to fund my pension. As a private school teacher, my pension is based on my conservatively invested 401K and whatever I get from social security. While my probable retirement income is less that the public school teachers have been promised; it is probably more that many of them they will ever see.

The weather during our current break has been terrible; either rain, cold, or both every day. Today is looking better and I may be able to take a bike ride later. It is about 9 am on Friday morning and I will finish my lesson plans for next week after I save this post. Over the last two days I have been stuck inside because of the weather so I have completed most of my to-do list during the break; contacting the local regional office of education about changes to my teaching certificate, contacting the Illinois Toll-way site to register my new car on my IPASS account, order some accessories online for the Honda, and resolving some problems with my antivirus software with the publisher. I then installed my Income Tax program and completed my 2009 tax return. The only thing on my to-do list not yet completed is the outside work I planned in my garden; but this should be finished Saturday of Sunday if the weather improves.

My wife and I are planning to go out to dinner tonight with my friend from the Theology Department and do some antique shopping tomorrow. All-in-all I would say that this break has been one of the most productive in years.