I couldn't take it anymore - I had to start working again. I don't know how those high school kids do it. Welded up a couple of jobs for other people including an aluminum turtle pond, that's a career first. We got the shop all cleaned up and now they are replacing the heater in the shop so things came to a halt this morning. I'm going to start back up on the Rickati project and try to get a little forward motion there. I'm not sure what and when all the heater replacement will involve, so I'll just try and keep the students amused and out of the way until the job is done.

I did have to move the Volkswagen to allow access to the heater. Coincidentally, a former student stopped by during open shop the other night and said it has been gathering dust since 2002. Maybe I should start working on that one a little bit. I did stare at it a little this morning. It's been long enough since I've worked on it, it would be like a new project and I'm always interested in starting new projects. I'll probably get over that urge soon enough, though.

I got an e-mail today from one of the big cheeses at IMSTEA about a link to photos taken at the high mileage tech inspection. Lots of photos here. The Honorable Senator Lugar is in quite a few of them but I guess that's to be expected. It's nice that he was concerned enough about what we do to put in an appearance. Too bad the same can't be said about the assistant principal.

We had a faculty meeting this morning. Once again it was made obvious to me that other people are just better human beings than I am. The one teacher that is being riffed received a little chicken-shit, touchy-feely award that they started handing out this year. The presenter turned it into something meaningful and the recipient accepted the award on the behalf of all those losing their jobs and spoke with a dignity and sincerity that was quite touching. I was very impressed with both ladies.

I was less impressed with the boss asking for volunteers to be club sponsors. The way I look at it, to paraphrase Arlo Guthrie, you've got a lot of damn gall asking people to volunteer to take on additional work and responsibilities when you've laid off all the phys-ed and art teachers in the whole corporation and want everyone else to take an unnecessary 4% pay reduction. As far as I'm concerned, everyone should retire from all extra duties until management comes to their senses. Maybe then they would appreciate the things teachers do if there weren't any chaperons for prom or club sponsors or athletic coaches either, for that matter, even if those are paid positions. The coaches damn sure don't make money commensurate with their responsibilities and the hours they put in. See what I mean? Others are just better human beings than I am.