Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Hello on Tuesday

Dear Friends,

Another day went as planned in Curleyworld. I did squeeze in the lawn cutting before the well deserved rains fell. The temperatures in the Berkshires dropped which meant that our air conditioners were able to be shut off.

While doing my outside chores on Monday, I was listening to my blogger friend who is a radio talk show host. He gave me a new name on the radio. I now have two names: "The Liberal Weenie", and he gave me the second name of "Captain Liberal!"

Observation -- One of his guests couldn't make the program because of a death in the family, so the "fantastic" radio show host decided to just to open the telephone lines. The usual callers flooded the air waves. One of the discussions was the fact that the two public high school bands didn't play or march in the Pittsfield Fourth of July Parade (which was part of our 250th Anniversary Celebration of the formation of Pittsfield) because the teachers and been in a long and protracted contract negotiations which included "Work to Rule." This means that the teachers did only what the teacher contract called for. They didn't do any of the extras. Marching in the Parade was considered an extra. Well, my radio talk show host expressed his anger during a multiple minute rant of how wrong it was for the bands to not participate in the Parade. Even though I never liked the "work to rule" tactic, we had used that tactic when I was President of the Teachers' Union. Teachers don't have much leverage when it comes to negotiating. There are very few tactics which can be used to wake the public up to our plight. No Union President and no Union members wanted to anger the taxpayers, and use the students as pawns during negotiations, but we have to do what we have to do to get things settled. Teachers are not greedy people (and we are taxpayers too), and all we want is a piece of the economic pie like everyone else does. When economic times are tight, the public wants city workers and teachers to "bite the bullet", and solve the crisis on the backs of us workers. The give and take aspect of negotiations gets "thrown out the window", and the management team wants to take away many of the gains that we have negotiated over the years. The public wants us workers to feel sorry for the financial situation that we might be in, and take the few "crumbs" which the management team offers us.
The people in the administrative contract love it when we do all the protesting, walk the picket lines, use work to rule, etc. because whatever hard fought gains we teachers secure, the administrators get the same contract raise. The only problem is that a percentage gain of a teachers' salary is not the same as what an administrator gets. In the latest contract, the teachers earned a 1% raise. Well as an example, 1% increase of a $40,000 teacher salary, and 1% increase of a $90,000 administrative contact can show you who the real winner is.

My Red Sox lost a 14 inning game last night to a team which is in last place in their particular division. The Yankees won their game as they inched closer to the Red Sox who have a slim lead in their division. Oh Darn! We Red Sox fans can hear the Yankee footsteps.

Social Calendar -- So far we have two other couples who will be going with us to the Steely Dan Concert at Tanglewood this evening. We will be partying on the lawn until the concert starts at 7 PM, and hopefully no rain is in the forecast. We will be there when the gates open at 4 PM. Do you think that three hours is enough time to party before the concert? There will be much food, fun, and merriment before this day is over. I better squeeze in an afternoon nap since I am up so early.

Dumb Things which I do to get myself in trouble -- I spray painted the lamppost several weeks ago. Linda was wondering why the Clematis plant next to the lamppost had black leaves, and not too many flowers this year. I admitted the error of my ways to Linda.
I even bug Linda when I am taking an afternoon nap. I came downstairs after my nap yesterday and saw that Linda had one of those neck devices which you heat up in the microwave before using. I asked Linda how she strained her neck. She said that someone (which might be me) always fails to remove change from their pockets before washing clothes. Being the short person that she is, she tried to reach in the washing machine and take out the loose coins. She strained her neck reaching for the coins. Oh Darn!

Well, I have to take care of some quiet activities, and make sure that all the stuff which we are taking this evening to the concert is ready to go. We are going to try and pack light for the concert, but it never happens!

Have a great Tuesday!
You know that the Curley's will be having a fun on Tuesday.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad

No comments: