Surfergeeks

Whee! Time for another rant. Apparently there are rumblings in the news-o-sphere that London may be looking to close some more under-utilized schools. Needless to say, all the people who have kids that currently go to these schools are up in arms about the prospect of losing their school. If my kid’s school was to be closing it would suck but if the TVDSB made a good argument for it then so be it. If the school is only half full, or can’t even really make 1 graduating class, then maybe it’s time to look at selling off the surplus. So my kid has to go to the school down the road. It’s not like they’re going to bus him an hour across the city. Assuming the Board is intelligent about it they would move him to one of the schools within a mile on either side of his current school. Hell, the one school is close enough that he could EASILY walk there as there as well. The other school is a bit further – it would be about a 25 minute walk I think.

So here’s my solution. When they announce a school is going to be closed (based on a set criteria – usually lack of enrollment) the parents that don’t want the school to close should be given an option to keep it open. The cost of maintaining the school above and beyond the regular costs would be split amongst the parents who wish to keep their little precious at that school. I’m not talking about teacher salaries (although if there isn’t a full class that may have to be addressed). I’m talking about physical upkeep costs, maintenance staff, etc. So if a school that is built to hold 1300 students only has 600 enrolled then the axe should be sharpened. If 250 of those 600 want to keep little Bill and Sally right where they are then those 250 would submit papers agreeing to pay 1/250th of the upkeep costs. I would be willing to go out on a limb and say that once The 250 found out the cost they’d be more than happy to send Billy an extra mile or two down the road.

Okay, here’s the first entry for my writing efforts. I realize it’s a day late from my weekly Friday deadline but it couldn’t be helped. I ran out of time yesterday. This is a different story. I can’t say as I’ve ever really written anything like this. All comments and criticisms will be graciously accepted. This exercise isn’t just to write but also to improve! So, with no further ado I present to you The Girl.

The first time I saw her was on the bus. I was on my way home from school and she was sitting across from me. our eyes met when the bus driver had to slam on his brakes to avoid wiping out a soccer mom talking on her cell phone. After we recovered from nearly being thrown from our seats we shared a brief smile. It was one of those “shared-experience” smiles that say “Hey, at least we made it out alive…so far.”

The next time I saw her was a couple weeks later in the cafeteria at school. I had just finished eating and looked up from my textbook. She was halfway across the room seemingly looking right at me. When our eyes met she smiled at me again. This time it was a warm, friendly smile. I smiled back out of instinct and gave a slight nod of acknowledgment. She quickly looked down at the floor, picked up her backpack and made a beeline for the exit.

I didn’t see her again for about a week. I was at the grocery store and, almost literally, ran into her there. Once again we smiled at each other but there was a definite sadness in her eyes and the smile seemed forced. Afterward she seemed to wander aimlessly around the store with no purpose.

When I returned home from school one day shortly after I found her in my bathroom. Her eyes stared up at me but there was no smile. The note said that if I didn’t want her that life wasn’t worth living. She signed the note “Love Always, Rebecca.” Until then I didn’t even know her name and we had never spoke a word to each other. That was the last time I saw her.

So we suck at blogging. REALLY suck at it. Alex had regular monthly updates on what he may or may not do and be able to do. Ryan, not so much. Poor little bastard. So anyhoo, my ONLY resolution for this year is to write more. Not just on my blogs but also other writing. To that end, my goal is one good quality post either here or over at my Old Man Freshman blog every week. Something with content – not just a quick few sentences letting people know that I’ve finally posted some new pics from six months ago! There are numerous projects out there that encourage a post a day or a photo a day or something like that. Certain months have goals of writing a complete novel in 30 days. (I’m pretty sure this is how Danielle Steele writes all those novels.) I’m not going to limit myself to any particular subject or group of subjects. Some posts may be about the kids, some about school, poker, maybe a short story based on a picture. Who knows. I’m going to encourage Nikki to do the same thing but I’m betting she doesn’t. And if she does, I bet that I outlast her. By the way, this post doesn’t count as one of the entries. IF the post is posted over at OMF I’ll either copy & paste it here or just post a link.