Ok, it’s official.

I’m going to be staying at the school I’m at for next year.  I went in and told the principal today, she was happy that I decided to stay.  I reiterated some of the other things that annoyed me about the school, but told her that I wanted to see how annoying it would all be when I was happy with the way my classes were running.  I may (or may not) have been hyper-sensitive to things because of how unhappy I have been with they way my classes were running.  I can have a lot of fun with people who annoy me, as long as my classes are going well and I have a few people who enjoy my crazy antics as much as I do. 

I know next year will go better than they have this year.  First of all, since I have 80% of the 8th graders this year, I got to hand-pick the students in the Algebra A-B class I’ll be teaching next year.  Second, and the only other thing, is that my 13 years of experience teaching jr. high kicked in a while ago, and the kids are beginning to respond.  I don’t dread going to work every day, in most of my classes (including the 9th grade from hell class) I’m actually getting teaching done for the majority of the class period.  This means to me that when I start off the new year the right way, things will be a whole lot better.

When the principal told me that she was happy I was going to stay, she also asked me what she could do to make the next year better for me.  Immediately I told her “You could give me 6 classes of psychology.”  Her response? “Sure,  no problem, we can make it work.”  Yes, that was sarcasm.  I knew it and she knew I knew it, we just laughed.

On another note, we were having lunch when the head custodian walked in while saying “To infinity, and beyond!” in classic Buzz Lightyear style.  I asked him “Isn’t that our Legislature’s motto on class size?”

Go figure.

Yesterday I woke up to an inch of snow on the cars.  Today I’ve got all the windows in the house open and the swamp cooler blowing fresh air.

Update: 12:48 – and now it’s 54 degrees outside, and hailing.

Sydney

Stupid Dugway Proving Grounds

I was goofing around on Google Maps the other day, looking for interesting places to go out in the west desert.  I saw this nice, straight road across the southern end of the salt flats, and decided to go check it out sometime.   Today was that sometime.

I headed out about 11:30, past Tooele, Stansbury Island and Grantsville, right around that second  ridge of mountains, took the Dugway/Iosepa exit and headed south.  I got a ways down the road and had to stop off for a pit stop, which (for a guy) is rarely a problem since out there you’re out in the middle of nowhere and can pretty much pull over anywhere.  But I did see a gas station a way down, so decided to stop there, which ended up being no help at all since they were shut down, but at least I did have a building to  stand behind.  It looked like they had started to add on and expand, but something made them change their mind.  There were two brand new pumps out in the middle of nowhere in a big gravel parking lot, but it stopped there.  I headed out again, got about a mile down the road and had to stop to check out the Tekoi Test Range.  It looked like  it hadn’t been used since WWII, but at least there were a whole bunch of real tumble weeds hanging out up against the fence.  And a bunch of sun-bleached bones where something (bovine presumably) had died and been left out forever.  Got a couple of pictures there and headed out on my way again.

I got to the point where Rte 196 ends at Rte 199, where I was supposed  to turn right and head west for 60 miles until I hit the salt flats, but there was something in my way.  Dugway Proving Grounds.  Stupid Dugway Proving Grounds.   For those of you unfamiliar with Utah,  it’s a big military installation where the US Gov did bomb testing back in the cold war days.  Or some sort of destructive testing.  Now I think it’s where they are destroying all the chemical bombs they built up back then.  I’m not sure, but the big guard station and the sign that told me they could search me and my car (no, I didn’t have anything illegal) made me decide that was the end of the road.  On further observation I saw the BLM  sign that told me I could head out there, if I was willing to travel 60 miles on dirt roads.  Not in the LTD.  Any of them.  That’s why I keep the Subaru.

So I decided today was not the day to make it out to the slat flats.  Just head home.  But I still had a decision to make.  Go back the way I came, up Rte 196, or head east on Rte 199 and see if I could make my way home that route.   Of course I chose not to go back the way I came.  It was a nice drive, up over the mountain and down into the Tooele valley.  It got nice and cold driving through the pass, even though it didn’t go up that high, but there were a lot of trees and snow, it was a pleasant drive. 

That took me up through Tooele, past the Great Salt Lake Marina, where I stopped off and checked out the fire Writer predicted a couple posts ago.  It was kind of amazing how burned willy-nilly, completely destroying one area, yet in the middle of a completely charred area there were a some trees that had only their trunks singed (look on the  very right hand side of the picture).

So, I made it home, without achieving my goal.  I’ll try it again sometime, with the Subaru, and it was a nice, relaxing trip none the less.  The latest LTD just floated over those highways, I would catch myself going 90 down a two lane highway without even realizing it.

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Schlick as Schnot.

The big old green LTD got new U-joints today.  I’m not really sure why they’re called U-joints, since they’re more like a + sign, but I do know that they allow the driveshaft to twist and flex in between the transmission and the rear axle (on rear wheel drive vehicles). I also know that when they start to go out, you begin to hear a “clunk” every time you shift gears.  And, if you don’t fix them, when they  break the car goes nowhere, ‘cause the driveshaft just falls out.

So, the  “clunk” was getting bad enough that I didn’t even want to take the car around the corner to Albertson’s. My little brother reminded me that all it would take is removing 4 nuts, and about $25 ($28.87 to be exact), so this morning I jacked up the car, crawled under it with a 1/2” wrench, removed the  4 nuts and yanked the driveshaft out of the transmission end.  Took a whole hour, and that included setup and cleanup. Then we brought it down to Six States (1380 So. 300 West) and dropped it off.  An hour later they called me to tell me it was done, which gave me just enough time to pick it up and head to Chevron.

I got off work at 10:00, slid the driveshaft back into the transmission, attached the U-bolts and the 4 nuts, took it out for a test drive on the freeway, and was back home by 10:45.  No clunks, smooth shifts and smooth as glass on the freeway.  Of the 4 LTDs I own, I have to say that this is the one that has the most right-off-the-showroom-floor ride.  Not the best looking (the worst for that matter), not even the best running, but definitely the smoothest ride of all 4.  Probably going to have to go on one of my “trips to nowhere” tomorrow to celebrate.