Saturday, March 25, 2023

Good morning! A day to finally sleep in with no work people coming or places I have to be and I woke up at 7. Harumph. But I was awake to see the balloons were back up today. 6 that I could see, but the winds took them away from my house.

Today I think I will be putting together my new Adirondack chairs for the back fire ring patio. They are that Polywood in mahogany. I hope I like there color as there are 6 of them. I'm a bit nervous to open the first box.

I might also think about a trip to Costco for some non-carby foods. And I'm low on diet coke. Which I wish I could kick, but have no desire too.

Hope you all are having a good day!

Those Adirondack chairs sound great. I hope your water leak gets found quickly (and is easily resolved). Seems a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack to me...

Back at the beach (no surprise there). But it is much more windy and cloudy than expected. We found a great new Tiki bar last night and I didn't eat too much. Tonight we are staying in as tomorrow we plan to make our last Key West visit before we leave on Friday.

Have a winning weekend!

They are older or less graceful people Adirondacks! So still an angled seat, but not as low and not as steep an angle. So still look like an Adirondack without apparently having to slither out the front to get up

We have 2 of those poly wood Adirondack, and we really like them. Only problem, so do squirrels! They chewed on of the arm rests and there's really nothing I am aware of that we can do to smooth it. Wretched squirrels. But we enjoy them even with a chewed arm.

So many things happening with our new superintendent. He has publicly said things that were false. At first I thought maybe he just didn't know and misspoke. Now it is apparent that his misinformation is meant to advance his positions. He told a student group that he had to cut the AVID program (its a seminar class for 1st generation college students, that supports their academics, takes them on college tours, helps them fill out FASFA etc) because the teachers are teaching it wrong and not following the state standards. There are no state standards, it is an elective class. It's indisputable. Lots and lots of nonsense like this. And he apparently was miffed that we didn't all remove our minifridges when he told us to, so he actually had the school board vote on it. They had a debate. We have a $7million shortfall (so he says, some are now starting to question this) and this is what he's spending time on. The savings will be negligible, because many of the schools are powered in large part by solar power. But taking away a program that serves mostly socio economically challenged students, awesome. We previously were a Blue Ribbon school, which is a big deal in education. He's on some kind of race to the bottom. Eliminating half of a 2 hour literacy block at the middle school, that had increased writing and reading scores. Awesome.

And refusing Union request for meet and confer with the school board. It's in the contract, and also a state statute. It smacks of union busting. So a grievance had been filed, which will probably lead to arbitration, which will cost district money. It won't change anything in the budget this year, it will be too late, but it should help in the coming years. Minnesota Educators Union is strong, and well funded by us, the members. I don't know how people survive this profession without one.

This morning, one of daughter's friends called me . Her mother and step father are separating and its escalating, and she is scared for herself and her mother. She asked if they could come to our house if needed. We will make them a key. So much sadness sometimes.

DD says she might need to take a leave of absence from work so she can go to her multiple therapy appointments and dig herself out. Cue our anxiety about how will she pay rent etc. When she first applied to grad school we strongly encouraged her to look at programs in Minneapolis so she could live rent free with us. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Sigh.

On a happier note, we are going to celebrate the 86th birthday of a dear friend this afternoon. We have known her almost 30 years, and she seems almost unchanged in those years. She is a marvel and an inspiration.

Oh, DH went to see a Weight loss doctor in our medical group. He has always been able to drop weight if he diets. His struggle, like everyone is maintenance. We have photos throughout the years of him at all different kind of weights. Anyhow, this year he cannot budge the scale, despite a lot of effort. The doctor was able to get our insurance to approve Wegovy. Its the weight loss drug version of Ozempic. He's going to start it on Sunday. We'll see how it goes!

I am tempted by Wegovy/Ozempic but a few things hold me back -

One, that there's not enough and people with Type2 Diabetes are having trouble getting it. I hear the manufacturer is upping supply, so maybe that issue gets solved this year?

Two is the studies on muscle loss. I haven't looked into it enough to understand if it's more than the muscle loss we all incurred with WLS? But some claim that's why the regain is so fast after people stop. So can that be mitigated by focusing on protein and working out?

Third, semaglutide injections have a box warning that they may increase the risk that you will develop thyroid tumors, so the thyroid nodule groups I follow say to be wary until more is known as we are all prone to thyroid growths anyway.

But, argh the temptation is there.

I think those are all valid points CC. Especially the thyroid tumors given your history. DH gets a lot of muscle building activity. He is still working 20 hours a week at his physical job (he usually has 10,000 steps by the end of his shift) and also goes to the gym with me.

I wondered about the potential shortage of meds too, but our pharmacy had it right away, same day as insurance approval came in, so I'm hoping that means the shortage is resolving. In the end, every man in his maternal family, uncles, brothers, cousins has type 2 diabetes. I suspect all his exercise is keeping it at bay, and taking off some excess weight will help too. So, I see it more as a medical need.

He sounds like a good candidate! I really hope it works well for him! I so want to try it, but think I'll wait a bit for the thyroid thing to be answered.

DD this stuff you report about the superintendent makes me crazy! Guy who has to manage a budget is enslaved by it. Runs around chopping worthy programs based solely on cost numbers. DH and I have long had a distain for the "beancounters" of the world because they make all decisions on a little column of black and white numbers and have no concept of true needs, worthiness, productivity and progress. Shakespear said "first let's kill all the lawyers" but it should be the bean counters. That superintendent needs to look at some other ways like seeking grants and other fundraising for starters. Any way thats my rant and I am sticking to it. Wishing you the best. Diane S

I understand that in budget shortfalls, there will be pain. In 2008 we had to cut 20 million over 3 years, and it was brutal. But the cost cutting was so transparent. We had community meetings, teachers meeting with admin, power points, surveys. All stakeholders had input. This superintendent, made his plan, presented to the schoolboard, and pressured them to pass it the same night he gave it to them, by telling them the teacher contract required the budget be set by March 15 so the staffing grid can go out. This is NOT in our contract, which one school board member knew, and corrected. What a piece of work.

PS - there is a reason so many tv shows cast the villain as a guy brought in to cut costs. Ruthless and clueless. Rewarded for not having a much of an active conscience. Sometimes organizations do get too big to support themselves and those cuts can hurt, but it's hard to argue your examples are excess or nice to have expenses.