A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE

      The Micro Manager decided to go to a Chinese Buffet for Mother's Day.

      Well , this suited me because I like Chinese food.  

     This city has three Chinese Buffets. The oldest one has seen better days but to our experience was the best of the three. One of the buffets is smaller with less variety. We tried the newest buffet about five years ago and it was awful. Recently Joe  and Nancy said the new one was very good.

    So we went to the old stand by. We looked at the price for seniors. The regular price was covered up with a piece of card board and Mother's Day prices shown.  As far as we could tell they raised the price $5.00 for Mother's Day. We thought that maybe since were at the restaurant that we should eat . A minute later I said, "I'm not eating here when they raise the price that much for Mother's Day."

    So off we went and decided to go across the street to the latest buffet that had been terrible. Here , they raised the price  dollar but were open about it. The place was busy and noisy. Good sign. People were having fun. 

    We were completely surprised to find that the restaurant that we had terrible experience with was absolutely fantastic. Great food! They had extra items like large shrimp, roast turkey, roast beef and a few other extras.

   So since the other restaurant was so devious, they've lost a couple of customers.

    Now most of the time I would not have walked out of a restaurant, but this time it was a matter of principle. Don't try to rip the customers off on Mother's Day.

MOTHER'S DAY BRINGS MEMORIES

      Mother's day brings lots of greetings to Mom's and an expression of appreciation of all that Moms do. It's a day to stop and consider how much Moms do for us. Some people just give a greeting and some have a lavish celebration. Sadly some don't mark the occasion at all.

     Well, some of us elderly people have our memories jogged and we think of our mothers of long ago. We can  not wish them a happy Mother's Day but we can think back to all that our Mothers did for us.

    I like to remember back to the time before I was born. Well, I can't really do that but I can certainly put many things together and then realize how much my Mom did for me.

    First, there was lots of excellent food but no money. Mom had gone through the depression as a young person and the issue was to survive. Mom's house was very poor. In the winter the house froze out over night. I was kept snug and warm, but I can easily realize how hard it was to raise a small child under those conditions. 

    These memories or the research make me appreciate all that was done for me under extenuating circumstances.

    Mom died in 1973 before she turned 60. 

     Mom with my son when he was about 2 months old.

STRANGE CONNECTION

     An infamous murderer, originally from my little city, has been sitting in a Montana prison for 35 years. Ronald Smith marched two young aboriginals into the trees at the side of a road and shot them for their vehicle and his pleasure of watching them die.

     Smith and his partner were caught immediately and charged with murder. They were both convicted and Smith requested the death penalty. A few days later he changed his mind and has been fighting for his life for the last 35 years.

    Bits and pieces have emerged about his life in my city. His mother and a sister have been identified and interviewed by the press.  The middle school Smith attended has given information about his time in school. Very little other information has been given. 

    About age 15 Smith's life went off the rails and he became addicted to various drugs one of them being LSD. He also became a petty criminal to support his drug habit.

    Now  few days ago Smith's father spoke to the press just before his death. This is the first we had ever heard of Smith's father. Smith's father has longed to see his son's legal problems settled. Smith's father admitted that he spent very little time with his family as he worked in the oil industry and spent time in many places around the world.

     Now here's the strange connection. Smith's father worked with me for a few years. He was a caretaker at my school. He was a hard worker and very meticulous in his work. It was a treat to have somebody clean your classroom as well as he did. We had our daily visit which was most pleasant. Not once did this man give any indication that his son was Ronald Smith.

    One wonders what pain went on in this man's life. He chose to remain anonymous. In the end he had to disclose his connection and make piece with himself.

GARAGE SALE BLUES

    We've been telling ourselves that we want to downsize and get rid of extra inventory like all the things we haven't used for many years. We talk about it but are not very successful when it comes to action . 

    So Saturday we had a garage sale. Photos are from 2010 so you know how long we've been working at this.

    First of all there is one of us who doesn't believe in throwing things in the trash. Throwing things in the trash is a fast and dirty way to get rid of stuff. If you can believe it I found book makers on the sale Saturday!

    After that there should be a free bin. Anything in the bin is free. 

    Then prices should be reasonable as garage sale customers want things for cheap. We have tried not putting prices on articles and asking for offers. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. 

    Then stuff on  garage sale should have some quality. 

    Well, we were disappointed Saturday. After you spend all winter putting things in a garage sale pile and then haul it upstairs and outside and sit all day ...well . it's a lot of work. 

    On Saturday we sold very little. There wasn't a lot of traffic. 

   The only bright spot was that we sold more stuff from in the house that was not on the garage sale than actual stuff on the garage sale.! 

    We had some table clothes and sheets for sale. One lady wanted them all. Then the Micro Manger in her lightning quick logic said that there was more in the house. So the MM brought out more table cloths and sheets and the lady bought them. Can you believe that the MM still had our wedding table cloths. They were sold. Yes, the wedding table cloths have been kept for 52 years and never used.

    So we looked at each other and said, " This is not worth it." We'd planned two garage sales so we'll go through with the plan. What plan B will be you never can tell.

FIRST BLOOMS

    Just so you know that I'm still not sitting in a snow bank or sleeping in my snow house, here are the first blooms I've found.

    Our plants develop rapidly because we now have many hours of sunlight. The sun rose at 6:03 this morning ans sets at 9:00 PM for a total of 14 hours and 57 minutes of sunlight. The 20 C (69 F) temperature helps too.

   

SKATING IS OVER

    Well, it's that time of year for me when skating is finished.  Last Thursday  afternoon was the last skate for this year.

    I have a few photos on skating over the last few years.

 

Now just in case you think I have winter outside now , here are some photos from Sat April 28. These are from our bird watching Sat mornings. I stole all of these from Lynette.

AN EPIPHANY

     I was a t...Yes you know this familiar start to  post of mine.

      I took a one year teacher training program in 1957-58. The training was very basic. There was also a six week practicum in the program. We took many courses but they were brief. Everybody got the same course: primary methods, reading, art, music, phys.ed. administration, classroom organization... Discipline was emphasized. Did I say discipline was emphasized? Yes , I did. 

      These were the days when discipline was strict. Classroom control was everything. Anything fast and dirty was used to get these goals. School trustees were only concerned about discipline...good behavior. They didn't seem to get learning strategies and achievement. Terrible things were d

one: strap, cane, shaking, shoving, slapping, pulling hair...awful things.

     Since I got half my education in the 40's, I was exposed to the discipline regime.

     I got the strap  but I well remember one and why I got it. This is the classroom and the teacher. when I look back at things this lady was an excellent teacher. I'm the innocent little fellow in the middle line from the teacher.

     In the one room schools the teacher went to his/her house to eat lunch and the students ate their lunch in the classroom without supervision. This worked fine 99.9% of the time. Somehow or other WWWX broke out one noon hour. For some reason or other we started throwing chalk brushes. The fight became intense and was it ever fun until the teacher walked in. Some of us were so intent in the activity that we didn't see the teacher. I was one of them.

     The teacher was very angry and we were sent to the cloakroom and soon she came in with the strap and we caught it. I was angry. We were having fun. Most of all , some of the people who were quick enough to see the teacher didn't get strapped. Did I stop doing stupid things? Well no. I still haven't stopped doing dumb things. 

    So I started my teaching career and the first part of it I emphasized good behavior. Many rants and raves occurred. One student even got the strap.

    Over the years and about mid career I gradually changed. I could see that ranting and raving sometimes caused more harm than good and in most cases didn't help the situation.

     I deliberately went low key. The adrenaline level was lowered. Problems that could have happened sometimes didn't happen. I rarely yelled. If I did yell, I sometimes heard, "He never yells.We better be good!" I used eye contact, hand motions ...low key stuff. Sometimes sterner methods were necessary. 

    So about mid career, I had learned some different strategies and how to apply them. We were given many professional in services. These strategies lowered stress and I went home at the end of the day in a much better mood.

    So I guess you could say that I had a gradual epiphany.