Here's an article from the BBC about the bikes...17664. labwabbit - 11/30/2005 6:29:49 PM
Judith-Baaaaaabeeeee!
How are you and the Keoni faring these days?
Good, very good, to see you here too!
That is a good idea for where I live. At least worth a good see from a business plan of view. Got only 31 miles of road and over 27,000 registered vehicles using it. If you put all the cars end-to-end here they would go from end to end of the road easily.
17665. labwabbit - 11/30/2005 6:31:49 PM
Hoo-boy,,,the incomparable MsNo. You know what special place you have with me young lady. ;->
17666. labwabbit - 11/30/2005 6:59:28 PM
Merry Cristmas/Happy Holidays/A a great start to the New Year friends.
Hope I have the op to get back before then however...
17667. arkymalarky - 11/30/2005 7:02:01 PM
OOOOOH LABWABBIT!
It's so wonderful to see you in here! Sounds like things are going great with you, from what I was reading in the Sports thread. Hope you find more time to spend here!
17668. arkymalarky - 11/30/2005 7:07:41 PM
Thanks Wabbit--headache finally left around 3 am, and I had to make up for two days of no sleep and stay medicated to keep it from returning, so I'm still out today.
Or is it congrats to her betrothed and good luck to her? Either way, best wishes for them both.
Thanks! I think it's congrats to her and good luck to the b/f. ;-)
They are both pretty settled and laid back (read "boring"), so marriage in their timeline wasn't surprising at all, and I'm hoping it stays as low-key and practical as it has been so far.
17669. labwabbit - 11/30/2005 7:11:36 PM
ARKUS!
Glad I checked once more before checking out...
Hot Damn woman...it's great to have caught you here.
Yes things are going well. I'm like a kid in a toy store here. Sooo many opportunities, soooo very little time.
But I'm following where life is taking me and it's like living a dream.
...and I thought time/life was going by fast before I moved. It seems like just one big long day kind of a ride.
I'm seeing and doing things that I never imagined myself doing, or being able to do. It's hard to believe it's been 6 years since leaving Maine.
How are you? (Aside from that "booger migraine) How's the classroom working for you?
Oh, I forgot. I'm a grandpa for the first time last July. In fact, I was down in your neck of the woods for the first 4 weeks of her life. Columbus, Mi. We left 4 days before Katrina hit. The eye went right over the base my son is stationed at.
Did it impact you at all? Directly or indirectly?
17670. labwabbit - 11/30/2005 7:17:55 PM
Uh, That's Columbus, "Ms."
...and congrats on marrying off a child. It's a hell of a road to get them to that point. If she's anything like her Mom, she'll continue to very well I suspect. :)
I've got to run.
Please, someone relay a hearty hello to Mago for me.
17671. arkymalarky - 11/30/2005 7:22:08 PM
Oh man, so close and yet so far! Katrina brought a couple of kids to my school for a couple of weeks, and that was about it. We tried to get someone to live in the upstairs part of our house, but between FEMA, the Red Cross, and the local housing authority I never could get anywhere. We had one family who would have liked to come, but they had five cats, and we have no way to protect cats from becoming dog treats for our two very large dogs.
I'm still loving the classroom, but tough state rules that are very hard on small, rural, poor schools have got me planning retirement within the next five years or so.
17672. arkymalarky - 11/30/2005 7:25:02 PM
If she's anything like her Mom, she'll continue to very well I suspect. :)
Thanks. I hope she'll one-up me.
Take care!
17673. labwabbit - 11/30/2005 7:31:17 PM
Sadly, Arkus, that a story I hear with increasing frequency these days. "No child left behind". My daughter teaches HS for the moment. The horror stories are bizarre on a good day. She is pursuing a career in state law enforcement/forensics, and will start academy this week I believe.
She always wanted to be a teacher as long as I can remember, but to reconsider a move to a state police force after a relatively short time...what's a parent to do...or say?
Some say teaching is a good fight...more are saying it's not a fair fight.
In any event, I hope you can hang on to the finish tape. Life really begins after your "first" retirement anyway. This I know!
Keep the faith.
Hope to see you soon.
17674. labwabbit - 11/30/2005 7:39:40 PM
One more thing.
Thanks for the link alistair.
17675. arkymalarky - 11/30/2005 8:56:26 PM
That's so sad to me, because the public education system needs people like your daughter so badly, and a few adjustments in the system would help so many kids who need not only a good education, but hope and inspiration--especially disadvantaged ones--by keeping competent and caring people in the profession.
A friend of mine who teaches in a very poor, high-minority rural school that was recently consolidated (over 90% of the kids there qualify for the federal free and reduced lunch and breakfast program) put it best, though surely it's been said before: For most of the kids we serve, school is the best place they ever get to be.
One unsolicited word wrt your daughter's situation, from personal experience, and that is that it's very worth giving teaching another shot in another district before leaving the profession. I was told many times not to quit after the first year, and I almost did it anyway. It was the year from hell in a number of ways. In retrospect, I can't imagine having enjoyed doing anything else with as little stress for 25 years. The stress I have had in recent years is not from my job, but from fighting to get fair treatment for rural and poor schools.
I'll definitely hang on as long as the school I'm in now is open. Our size and poverty are disadvantages, but we're one of the few districts in the state that hasn't been put on some sort of list by the state ed dept as deficient in one area or another. If they require local funding of state-required facilities upgrades, that's the most likely thing to kill us. Our campus is beautiful, neat, and well-kept, but it's not new, to say the least.
17677. Ulgine Barrows - 12/1/2005 10:37:46 AM
wabbit, this is beneath you.
(that is meant cover the whole season, not to piss off the Christmas sensitive)
You are near a beach, why not use it?
I get up every morning and remember the beach is gone.
17678. Ulgine Barrows - 12/1/2005 11:18:58 AM
wabbit, you know you wouldn't trade lives
Hang in there
17679. judithathome - 12/1/2005 5:46:26 PM
Once again, I have no idea what Ulgine is talking about...
That holiday comment was in reference to a heated debate about the godless trying to kill Christmas by saying Happy Holidays rather than Merry Christmas. "Godless" being a relative term meaning anyone not of the correct Christian persuasion in this country.
17680. Ms. No - 12/1/2005 7:37:06 PM
What's wrong with Happy Holidays? It's not like Christmas is the only holiday even Christians celebrate, you know. What about Thanksgiving? What about the New Year? It's a whole holiday season fer pity's sake. Talk about a persecution complex.
