Saturday, January 12, 2008

"Ah yes, the 2.8 v6. The fuel economy of the 4.3 with all the power of the 2.5 iron duke."

"I suppose on the bright side, they leak so much oil that the block will never get a chance to rust." Yes, I have always loved the GM 3.8Litre V6. The Regal. Luxury to spare, slow as a snail. The Skylark. So bad I ripped it out and replaced it with a 4 cylindar. And the Jeep, my Wonderful Wagoneer. Danny kicked my butt going up Parley's Summit. I was in the Jeep, towing nothing, he was in his Mazda B2000, towing a trailer. Passed me like I was standing still, and getting twice the gas mileage. Yup. I love the GM 3.8 V6.
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So I was up at 5:00 this morning. I let myself get volunteered for another one of these Saturday college field trips. This time to UVU, Utah Valley University, formerly known as Utah Valley Community College. Other than being at school, standing in the dark waiting for the bus at 6:00am, it was a fun day. Saw some robots, played with physics stuff, learned about fingerprints (did you know that the Egyptians were aware of their use over 3,000 years ago? Neither did I until today.) Anyway, it's 6:30, there are tops 20 people in a bus built for 60 and it's dark outside. I said that it felt like the beginning of a really bad horror movie. We got into a big discussion about who was going to go first. Teachers, #1. Bigger kids second, get them while you're fresh. And last would be Adam, small, wiry and fast. The conversation faded out somewhere around 7200 south. About 15 minutes later we come up over the point of the mountain into a wall of fog. The radio crackles to silence. Tyrel comments that his cell phone lost reception. We all get real quiet and all of a sudden Sam blurts out "Oh my God, I'm dead, they always go for the black guy first" and ducks under the seat. Now I know this isn't very Politically Correct, and I do apologize to anyone who takes offense. But coming from Sam himself, and because of it's spontaneity, I couldn't help but laugh. It's like Guy on Galaxy Quest. "Of course I'm gonna die, I don't even have a last name!".

9 comments:

A Paperback Writer said...

WTC?!
I am trying really, really hard to connect the ideas in your post today, but I am failing miserably. What does the engine part have to do with the field trip/horror movie part? I could blame it on my mechanical ignorance, but I still think you've left something out.
And what was it, exactly, that you went to see at the school formerly known as UVC? A temporary display? A musuem? What?
And since WHEN does a school do Saturday field trips? I've never heard of those in my life? What's up with Carol's coming up with that? And a field trip for 20 kids? Who the heck is funding this thing? I know the woman's a money wizard, but STILL! I can't even have a microphone for my classroom anymore (short in the old one, district won't pay for another, too expensive for me to have it fixed, too stupid to fix it myself) so I have to suffer with my laryngitis and she's funding a field trip for 20 kids on a Saturday?! I am sorry, but that is SO bloody unfair.

Max Sartin said...

well. Lotta questions to answer there. In all reality there is no connection between the engine and the field trip, other than they both happened on the same day. There was an eMail from my brother Danny with the quote about the engine when I cam back from the field trip. As for the field trip itself, every year they hold a kind of a science fair for High School students, to introduce them to things scientific and get the excited about going to college. Saturday and the money have the same answer : Gear Up. It actually has nothing to do with Carole, they were doing it at the Junior High even before I got there. Gear Up is a federal grant for low income schools, specifically geared to get kids thinking about and planning for college. Tons of money. A huge chunk of our FTE is Gear Up money, the Junior High holds Saturday School tutoring every other week, and 4 weeks of summer tutoring and other activities. We, and they too, do after school activities (sports, cooking, guitar and other fun things) to keep the kids out of trouble and theoretically bound for college. All paid for by the Gear Up grant. Of which Carole actually has no control over - it's run by the Gear Up coordinator over at the Junior High.

Jo said...

Did you hear that we will no longer have Gear Up next year? Very sad, but true. My boss better start kissing up to some business people so we have money from somewhere!!!!

A Paperback Writer said...

Ah.
Okay, well, I'm still jealous.
Thanks for your patience in explaining.
And I'm still clueless about the engine stuff, but that's just me.

Max Sartin said...

Jo - I heard they were going to be reapplying for the grant again next year. Is it a no-go, or still a possiblity? It's gonna suck if we lose that funding!

Writer - No problem on the explaining, and as for the engine thing, that's kind of an inside thing with my brothers. As long as you understand there is really no connection between the two....

Jannx said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Max Sartin said...

thanks jannx, and I'm hoping we don't lose the funding also. It goes a long way helping us help our students.

Jannx said...

Sorry to mess up your comments section. I deleted my comment because I couldn't edit it. The corrected comment is below:

"Hello Max. Yes, I would have laughed also. Oh, and I hope you have not lost your grant money."

I'll try to be more careful in the future.

Max Sartin said...

No problem jannx, I've done the same thing. It would be nice if they wrote the program to let you edit it......