Drama At Work

I have found a new assistant to replace Annie just in time for the beginning of the school year. Kathy is in her 50's and she has been teaching head start for about 15 years. Hopefully she will work out well.

I went into work yesterday to clean my fish tank. I have a hose that I hook up to an outside faucet and it has a little attachment that allows it to drain water out of the tank on one setting then fill it by turning the attachment to another setting. I got it all hooked up and set to drain the tank and I turned on the water but the part that connects to the faucet was cracked and water started spraying everywhere. I tried to turn the water off and the handle on the faucet broke off in my hand. I went to get a custodian to figure out how to turn the water off and at some point while he was fiddling with the faucet he must have bumped the attachment into the fill position, and the next thing I new my aquarium had overflowed and flooded my room. It took about an hour to clean up the mess!

The other bit of drama that has been going on started on Thursday. By way of background information, I had a little girl whom I will call Tammy in my day care last year. Tammy's mother was not married when she was born, and Tammy spent almost all of her 1st 2 years in her maternal grandmother's custody. Sometime around the time that Tammy turned 2 her mother married and Tammy went to live with her mom and her new stepfather. Tammy's grandmother is a teacher and she is the one who signed her up for our program. The first time I met her she told me that, "My daughter and her husband are, well, let's just say that they're both a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic." I found that assessment to be true. They were not the brightest and they were both really weird. Tammy was basically a feral child. She was almost three but not potty trained, wouldn't let anyone touch her, and her behavior was completely out of control. We worked with her but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. Sometime in November or December, Tammy's stepfather adopted her. About two weeks later the mother told him, "She's your problem now." And she left. As things got weirder the maternal grandmother and the adoptive father feared that the mother might do something to harm Tammy, and I was instructed to call them immediately if she ever came by the school. She never did come by, and she only had 3 or 4 supervised visits with Tammy between January and June. Apparently sometime in the last few weeks Tammy's adoptive father went off to boot camp and her mother decided that she was ready to be a mother again. On Thursday of this week I got an e-mail from the grandmother stating, "I'm sorry to inform you that Tammy will not be returning to Davis High this year. I'm wondering if DCFS has contacted you about Tammy being molested while in your care?" Needless to say I was floored. Even if someone in my program wanted to do something like that, we are basically in one big room and there would not be an area private enough to do something like that. After a few more e-mails back and forth the grandmother admitted that she didn't think that anything like that could have happened in our facility, but her daughter did. Remember, this is the woman who left her daughter, only had a few supervised visits with the child over the next 8 months, and who never set foot in our school after December of last year. Luckily I haven't been contacted by DCFS or anyone else about these allegations, which my principal and I assume means that either the woman never really reported a claim, or the claim was not credible enough for them to follow up on. Keep your fingers crossed for me that nothing further comes from this! If this is any indication about the way that things are going to go this year, I don't want to go back to work.

I NEED a Bahamavention!!!

Window Project is Complete

My window project is finally complete. The ugly aluminum windows with torn screens have been replaced with beautiful new vinyl windows. Aaron and Company are set to rip off my roof this weekend, and once it has been replaced I plan to take a break from the major home improvement projects. I still have some painting that needs to be done, but I have been busy getting ready for school for the last 3 weeks and I haven't had time to do it.
This is another picture of my smaller stupid clown loach. Tiny Tim doesn't lounge around the tank on his back, but he does try to eat the flakes when I sprinkle them into the tank. The problem is that he is a bottom feeder, and his mouth is on the bottom of his face, so he has to swim upside down in order to eat the flakes. He is not very successful at it.
In other home improvement news, the house next door continues to look better and better. The grass is being mowed, weeds the size of trees have been ripped up, and the trumpet vine that was growing from a crack in the sidewalk and up the side of the house has been eradicated. The house is so clean that it almost looks naked. I peeked through a window last night and they have completely gutted and redone the living room and kitchen. It looks beautiful. The are currently working on the bathroom, and however disgusting Nate and Angie may have thought their old toilet and vanity were, I don't think they could compare to the lovely mint green toilet, sink and tub that are now sitting in a dumpster in the car port. We may turn this into a classy neighborhood yet!

Angela, This is for You!

According to www.post-gazette.com, the black bear population is on the rise in Pennsylvania. Once found only in remote northern forests, black bears have recently been sighted near Greensburg, Butler, and even Pittsburgh. The population has grown from around 4,000 in 1970 to around 15,000 today. All that the bears need to support life is an abundant food source (rabbits, groundhogs, opossums, and fish) and the safety to grow to maturity. I would say that, given the heavily wooded areas in and around Erie, it is entirely possible that you did in fact see a bear!

P.S., I tried to find a picture of a black bear to put on this post but I couldn't figure out how to upload a picture from the web.

Enjoying The Barnes Resort

I returned from my vacation to Erie last night, but I was having technical difficulties so I was unable to blog it at that time. I have to say, the Barnes family has a fabulous resort. I highly recommend it to everyone. The neighborhood is so quiet and peaceful that you would never know there were busy city streets just a few blocks away. Their backyard is so shady and full of bird song in the day and fireflies at night that I could enjoy just that part of the resort for days at a time. I am already missing the s'mores!

We went to Niagara Falls on Saturday and it truly is a spectacular sight. Nate really wanted to take the Maid of the Mist boat ride to the bottom of the falls, but he was vetoed. Sorry, Nate!

The first photo is a view of the American side of the falls through the mist, and the next one is a view of the water just starting to go over the falls on the Canadian side. The third photo shows the American side of the falls and Rainbow Bridge, and on the bottom you can see the Maid of the Mist boat heading to the bottom of the falls on the Canadian side.







After we viewed the Falls and ate at a cute restaurant with okay food and terrible service, we explored some of the tourist sights near the Falls. The kids were excited to check out the Guinness Book of World Records Museum which turned out to be a huge disappointment. There were tons of attractions on that street that we could have checked out, but it was extremely crowded so we were content with enjoying an ice cream cone in the park. Liv picked up this cool cardinal walking stick that she had been wanting since her last trip to Niagara Falls.

On Sunday we went out to Presque Isle and Liv and I spent a couple of hours body surfing in the waves. We managed to get Nate, Grandma, and the Beaver out there for a while as well. The water looked really cold, but once you got wet it was fine.

We had lunch at a darling restaurant which we like to refer to as Smuggler's Dwarf at Gobbler's Knob. (It is really called Smuggler's Wharf, and I can't remember what the area is really called.)

Before I left on Monday we checked out the Tom Ridge Environmental Center near Presque Isle and we learned about the formation of Presque Isle and the animals that live in the area. I'm sorry Ang, but it there was no mention of there being any bears in the area. We went out onto the observation tower and looked across the lake and wondered how far it was to the other side. According to Wikipedia it is 57 miles wide at the widest part, and even from our cruising altitude on the plane I could not see the other side. It is one HUGE lake! It was also cool to look out over the suburbs of Cleveland which appear to be almost completely forested. It is a beautiful place, and I am jealous! I miss you all already, and I hope that you will enjoy a s'more for me.