This is it....

The final day of 103 years of Granite High School, the second high school in the Salt Lake Valley. Channel 2 news has us closed down already, I just saw on their newscast that we closed our doors yesterday. Hmmm, maybe I should believe them and not go in today. Yeah. My principal would kill me.

Anyhoo, as of 11:30 today I will no longer be a high school teacher, I will rejoin the ranks of the junior high teacher. Which is ok with me, since at any other high school in my district teachers have a crapload of after school activities that they are all responsible for. Coach this, that club, dances, concerts and plays, oh my! Bleah! So, chapter 4 of my teaching career comes to a close, and chapter 5 starts Monday morning at 9am when all the math teachers from the elementary schools, junior highs meet with the math teachers from the high school we all feed into. It's called Vertical Teaming, and helps coordinate the skills students learn from one level to the next. I did this in chapter 2 of my career with the junior high and high school math teachers out in Magna.

I expect it will be an interesting day today. I'll let you know.

Maximum Stupidity, Thursdays on your local Fox Network.

Stupidity reigns above all.  Especially for the moron in the white Honda 4 door behind me on 21st South today.  Now, considering the number of white Hondas on the road, this could be anyone, but soon you'll know if I mean you.

I was driving home around 5:00 tonight, coming up 2100 So between 11th and 13th East.  The light at 13th was out, so traffic was backed up all the way back to 11th.  It took me about 15 minutes to go the 2 blocks.  The whole time with this white Honda riding my back bumper.  I started by rolling back a little bit each time she rode up on my bumper.  Then I escalated to a roll back with flashing the backup lights.  Since she seems to have the right to follow as close as she damn well pleases, this just encouraged her to get even closer each time.  So close that all I could see out my back window was her windshield, and that was before I did any rolling back.  So I yell out the window, before even noticing her window was down also, "Do you have to ride my ass so close?"  No response except to continue following as close as before.  So I decided to limit the number of times she had to move so close to my bumper, figuring the fewer times we move the less likely she is to hit me (and maybe it'll tick her off also).  So I start letting the car in front of me get a full car length ahead, or more, before I would move up at all.  This did not agree with her plans.  She gets even closer.  So I yell out the window again "You're not going to get there any faster riding my ass!"  Still she does.  A couple moves forward and I yell it again.  Then she does something unexpected.  She pulls out her cell phone and points it at my back end as if to take a picture.  Ohhh, nooooo!  The police are gonna git me fer driving slower when tailgated.  So I pull out my camera and pretend to take a picture of her (all I got was the back seat).  Pull up a little further, she pulls up on my bumper again and then flashes her phone at me as if to say "Look, I got a picture of you!"  Again I think "and?"  I shrug my shoulder out the window to show exactly how much that concerns me, just as the car in front pulls up far enough for me to get into the left turn lane, and get my chance to turn left before she pulls up next to me so I can shrug my shoulders at her again.

I vent, therefore I am. (done with it, that is).

Alex

DMV OK with Me

Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) employees have a reputation for being surly workers.  After 54 vehicles in my lifetime, with four currently registered cars, I've spent a lot of time in lines there.  Overall their reputation is undeserved, and my latest experience there reaffirms this.

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I went to register the convertible yesterday.  No big deal, except the registration expired back in July of 2008.  I knew this meant that I would have to re-register the car again in a month or so - I should have only been able to register the car until July of 2009.  The lady who was helping me commented on this, and asked me why I hadn't registered the car earlier.  When I explained that it was a classic convertible and spent the last year in the garage, she went to get her manager so that she coule bump up the registration.  That means that they pretty much forgave me the whole year between July 2008 and now and registered the car until June of 2010, at no extra cost.  SCORE!

Dan & Rae