Hello on Friday Morning

Dear Friends,

Linda said that Thursday on Cape Cod was cool and rainy. 10 other friends made it to Cape Cod yesterday. A few more are coming today. The ladies won't see the sun until Sunday and Monday like us in the Berkshires.
It was not only damp and dreary on Thursday, but it was even cold on Cape Cod. I asked Linda if she packed some clothes which would take out the chill, but she said that she didn't. This means a little shopping at "Cuffy's" for a sweatshirt.
The twelve ladies went out to supper in the rain. I think that their cocktail hour at the motel went a little longer than planned.

I gave our lawn a trim, but I dodged raindrops during the last 15 minutes of that task. I did put most of the deck furniture on the deck. If it every stops raining I have to do some weed whacking, put plants which we have already potted on the deck. The positive about the rain, which has been falling on a daily basis, is that I don't have to water all of the flowers which we planted. The negative is that the weeds are multiplying at an exponential rate. Weeding the flower beds is another task which I hope that I will be able to do.

We have a day of off and on rain on tap for today. The front is just churning counter clock wise, and it will take a while before it exits the east coast. If this was winter time, we would have snow falling day after day for a week straight.

A professional basketball player is going to change his name from Ron Artest to "Mehta World Peace." I really hope that his basketball game will see a noted improvement because of the name change.

Politics -- While doing some of my projects in the garage yesterday, I had the radio on and I was listening to my friend's 3 hour long talk show radio program. He was picking on me a little bit about calling him and several of my email recipients "Fence Sitters" which is the name which I have assigned to those people who call themselves "Independents". His contention is that the two party system is not working in this day and age. I want to know how and what should we do to change the way it is right now. The solution is not to create a new party, but to fix the problem with the party which you have tendencies to support.
To me it is like Public Education. If you are not happy with Public Education, you don't just throw it out. Some of my email recipients actually joined their local school committee to affect changes when their children in school.
Yesterday, my radio show host started to pick on Teacher Unions a little because the Pittsfield Public Schools and the Teachers Union are close to an agreement. My friend thinks that the teachers should make concessions to some issues that we retired teachers fought long and hard for when were teaching. I will give you an example of a particular issue. I am not sure if there was language in the contract when I was Union President. On the first day of school, every teacher had to submit to the Principal of the school which day of the week that they would stay after school for extra help or to administer "make up" tests for students who missed school. Some teachers stuck to that one day, but most of us would help a student any day of the week when a student requested. During contract negotiations, the Administration wanted to put it is the contract that the teachers must stay for one class period for after school help. When I was teaching, we did it as a "prior practice", and I don't think that there was language in the teacher contract.
Another thing that Administration wanted was a dress code for teachers. If a teacher is dressed inappropriately, which some of the young teachers do dress, why can't a principal go right to the teacher, and tell the teacher of his or her concerns? Most of the teachers do dress in a professional manner, but some think that MTV type of clothes are okay in the classroom.
For myself, I didn't think jeans were appropriate dress for a classroom teacher. If I was a vocational teacher in a shop setting, wearing jeans wouldn't bother me at all because their students would end up working in a setting where jeans were an acceptable form of dress.
Finally, many issues can be resolved on the discussion level. If the Union starts playing "contract" on every issue which arises, the administration will play by the language of the contract too. I have been in this situation as a Union President, and it was not pleasant. I will give you an example. We used to be able to go to a Principal and ask for a day off either the day before or the day after a school vacation or a holiday. Well some teachers abused this unwritten privilege, and language was put in the contract restricting being absent from school before or after the school vacation or holiday. A friend of ours wanted to go to Texas a day early of a holiday weekend to help set up for the rehearsal party and wedding for her only son. She goes to the Assistant Superintendent to ask for the day off. He pulls out the contract, and said that she can't take the day off unless she does so without pay.

Social Calendar-- Linda is at the Cape, and I have a totally free day which I am going to enjoy every moment of. I am going to try and do my outdoor tasks, read a little, take an afternoon nap, and watch the Red Sox, and enjoy the peace and quiet. If it stops raining around supper time, I will cook something on the grill which I have used only once since I bought it a couple of months ago.
The deck still has a few cosmetic things which have to be done so we are almost ready to party.

Have a great start to the weekend even though it is raining right now here in Pittsfield.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad