February: Where Do I Go From Here?

In my last post (last OCTOBER, for cryin' out loud), I noted that I was moving in with mother for 6 weeks. It has become a permanent move. After 3 weeks, I knew that mother really couldn't live alone any more.

I found a wonderful housekeeper that comes every other week. (Bliss).

October 12th, (2 weeks after I had replaced all 4 tires, dammit), on my drive to University, a man ignored a red light at the intersection of state highway 19 and US HWY 81 and removed the front end of my 4 year old Nissan Versa. My car was totaled.

 I broke a fingernail on my left little finger. I got 9K for the remains. I traded in my dad's pickup (9K), added 4K from the insurance settlement, and bought a Honda Civic Hybrid. 0.5% financing!

I was assaulted at school for the second time in two years. A couple of girls thought it would be funny to spike my tea with hand sanitizer. One girl withdrew from school. The other spent 3 days in in-school suspension. I was not happy with the administrative response.

I'm leaving public education. I'm vested in my retirement. Actually, I go to the state department of education next Friday to do the paperwork. I've started bringing things from classroom to my office at university or to the storage shed. My co-teacher is leaving, too. The admin will have to completely replace the freshman science department. We have already purged the first semester intellectual property that we have compiled for the last 10 years. By the end of the year, I want to drop off my keys and walk away.

I need to renew my passport, because I am going to spend the remaining monies from the car accident and go to South Africa for 2 weeks.

I will assist in a week-long summer camp on food science on my return, teach the chemistry and physics section for the remainder of the summer term, and add an interdisciplinary lab to a daytime class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

On the bright side, my grandson is terrific (with a porcelein skin that girls would rip out their eyes for)

and my granddaughter (professional photo) is pulling up and is pretty terrific, too.

But it is possible that I am biased.