Author Archives: Netmom

Winds of Change

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It was a shock to learn this morning that VolunteerVoters is no more, with Kleinheider falling to budget cuts at WKRN.  Reading through the many comments, it’s clear that this is a blow to the blogosphere across the state.

If anyone needed more evidence that the economy really has fallen through the outhouse floor, there it is.

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I also learned this morning that someone has started up a new local blog under the heading Citizen Netdad.  My husband has talked about doing so for better than a year, but I’ve always dissuaded him… he needs his own identity.  So for anyone who stumbles across it and wonders, no, Citizen Netdad is no relation to me — and certainly is not my hubby.  HWTFM has procured a domain name, but hasn’t put anything up yet.

In case you’re wondering, the missing link is intentional.  I’m still in a tiff over the blatant ripoff of a name so similar to my own.

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The Oak Ridge Schools’ draft budget for next year should be arriving sometime this week, so stay tuned in the coming days for some more useful posting on that subject.  Also, we have a German exchange student arriving on Wednesday, so that should liven up things at home for a few weeks.

Through these last cold, dark days of winter, I’ve nearly finished Beta’s quilt top (in preparation for her leaving for college next summer), have begun work on a prom dress for Gamma, and finished Delta’s Easter dress yesterday.  All the hearth and home stuff hasn’t left a lot of time for writing, but I’ve gone through several excellent books on my iPod.  Listening isn’t as much fun as reading, but it’s hard to read and sew/drive/cook at the same time.

Snow Day II

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Elementary school was called off before students were picked up this morning, but the buses had already picked up middle and high school students throughout the city this morning before the decision was made to call off school for the day.

I know there are some grousing parents out there — especially on the West end of town, where there’s hardly even a dusting on the grass.  However, I just came from a Rotary meeting at Inspiration Point (far East end), and I can tell you there’s a lot more snow there.  Everything is white, including the road.  There are icy patches scattered across town (including on West Outer Drive, just west of Hilltop), so it’s not like one can make a good judgment based on the snapshot outside any given home or office.

When the bus drivers reported slippery conditions this morning, the Director of Schools checked the radar and temperature forecasts again.  Finding that the temperature is not supposed to rise above freezing and that snow will continue — albeit on and off — through mid-afternoon, he made the call to close all schools and send the buses back to take the kids home.

Having just driven from one end of town to the other, I can’t say that I disagree.  It’s not bad everywhere, but the few icy spots are a problem.

What this will do to the orchestra’s scheduled departure for New York at 3 p.m. is unknown; that decision hasn’t been made yet, and will probably involve consultation with the tour line that’s transporting the kids.  Gamma’s supposed to be on that bus, so I understand the anxiety that other orchestra parents may be feeling today.

Attendance revisited

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This morning, I took the opportunity (as I often do when the Legislature is in session) to review a list of education-related bills under consideration by our General Assembly.  One in particular jumped out at me in a bad way, even though I know the sponsor to be a thoughtful and intelligent person.

SB3896/HB3826 (Burchett, McCord) would dictate that "For each five (5) times a student is tardy to school in a school year, the student shall be counted as having been absent one (1) day from school."  The implications of absences can be quite serious — affecting school funding, as well as consequences up to and including families’ referral to juvenile court.

I’ve discussed my concerns about the attendance policy (here, here and here, to start) at length, but this bill would intensify the problem.  Consider for a moment the following situation, which occurred just this week:  the mother of an 11-year old receives a referral to "campus court," administered by the juvenile court in Anderson County.

The crime?  Little Johnny was tardy 10 times over the last six months.  "Tardy," in this child’s classroom and many others, is defined as "not being in one’s seat when the bell rings."  He was delivered to school in plenty of time, ate breakfast, stopped by the library and his locker… but managed to get distracted along the way and wasn’t in his seat when the bell rang.

On those ten days over a six-month period, he missed — at most — ten minutes of homeroom.  No instructional time at all.  However, if this bill should pass, that would equate to two full days (roughly 14 hours’ worth) of absences for the purpose of school funding as well as little Johnny’s attendance record. 

Remember to e-mail your state senators and representatives about things that are important to you; it does make a difference.  I already have.

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And don’t worry about Little Johnny.  The safeguards we put into place last January (to ensure that families are not frivolously referred to court for attendance matters) worked, and the court referral was cancelled.  The letter never should have gone out to begin with, but with a little oversight, the problem was fixed in time.

Where am I?

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Girlfriend called last night to ask if I’m waiting for the shuttle to land before I post again.  Not intentionally, but the fact is that I’ve got a lot on my mind — little or none of which would be appropriate for me to write about at this time.

But if I’m not writing, what am I doing? (click image to enlarge) 

Beta will (presumably) graduate from high school this year, and she’s been accepted at my favorite (GO BIG ORANGE!) university.  Sew, I must work diligently if I am to finish the "college quilt" promised to each of the four daughters.  It’s all done by hand — no machine-piecing or quilting for me — so it takes some time.  A few hours per day to complete one square foot, to be exact.

And, the heat’s out again.  We survived heating the house with just wood for a month, from Christmas until Jan. 29, and had the furnace fixed before we left for Orlando last week.  It survived our absence, but now the blamed thing just has to be replaced.   Or, I have to keep the fire going to stay warm… which involves some work, but doesn’t cost anything, and doesn’t burn any fossil fuels.
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Certainly, there’s a lot more going on in the world that’s important, but not much that would be changed by my carrying on about it.  But, for the sake of argument, I was glad to see that McCain came out victorious in all three primaries yesterday.  I’m just not a Huckabee fan, because the issues that are most important to him are the ones we disagree about, and the ones I think the federal government has no business being involved in.

Congress is spending valuable time today hearing (and all major news channels covering) steroid use in baseball.  C’mon now, is that really the most important work to be done today on Capitol Hill?
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Maybe as I finish today’s square, I’ll think of something more engaging.  But for the moment, I’m focused on hearth and home and the stuff I cannot talk about.

Free the grapes!

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Talk to a legislator about the bill to allow Tennesseans to purchase wine online and have it shipped, and you’re likely to encounter the response that the law is designed to keep alcohol from minors.

Bovineoffal.

The Tennessean captures it more accurately:

To outsiders, the debate may seem like an arcane regulatory struggle. But wine enthusiasts have found common cause with free-marketeers who argue that systems such as Tennessee’s, which relies on large wholesalers, stifles free enterprise and a booming Internet wine market, to the detriment of consumers.

Such laws are under scrutiny because of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that shook up a long-standing system of wine distribution and helped spur a boom of Internet wine sales.

The debate has pitted small vineyards, wine collectors and specialty retailers against large distributors that have dominated wine distribution since Prohibition.

Pure and simple, our current system creates a protected monopoly for middlemen who both stifle the choices available to consumers and inflate prices.

The biggest barrier to changing Tennessee’s laws, according to critics, is the lobbying clout of alcohol wholesalers. Wholesalers donated some $50 million to state political campaigns between 2000 and 2006; more than $800,000 was spent in Tennessee, said Tom Wark, the executive director of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association.

"If I was a wholesaler, I’d be concerned about maintaining a monopoly, too," Wark said.

Today would be a good day to e-mail your state senator and state representative, and express your support for this concept.  While you’re at it, you might also consider expressing support for allowing wine sales in grocery stores — another measure that would improve price and selection for the consumer.

I spoke to Sen. McNally about it last week, and pointed out that it makes little sense to me that we don’t allow wine to be sold in a grocery store, but it’s perfectly okay to sell beer in a gas station.  What message does that send??

As a mother of teenagers, I’m quite on board with efforts to deter alcohol sales to minors.  However, given that retailers are now required to check ID for anyone purchasing alcohol — including obvious senior citizens — it really doesn’t make a hill of beans’ worth of difference where the products are sold.  What matters is diligence in following the law, ensuring that the purchaser is 21 or older.  That’s not too hard.

The current law supports archaic protectionism and unfair restrictions of trade, and it’s wrong.  Make some noise!

Open Government

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Most of you who know me, and some who don’t, know that I’ve advocated for five years that our school board packets be made available online. City Council has done so for some time now, and it’s not that hard to do. There is some redacted information (unapproved board minutes are one example), but now the public can see the same information that Board members have prior to each meeting.

Starting now, it’s there.

I have long believed that we would have more support and confidence from the public, if everyone could see the same information that we have when making decisions. Without question, it will spur additional questions and input, but that’s a good thing. If five minds are better than one, perhaps 27,000 are better than five.

I certainly do not expect that everyone in town is going to put the same time into understanding school governance that the five of us do, but it is your school system, and you have every right to be informed. That, and I do believe that if the public were more informed, we would also find them more supportive of our efforts.

Happy reading!

On Ice

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I’ve been asked any number of times in the past couple of months, "WHO is responsible for my child’s safety?"

My answer:  "you are."  And I exercised that authority this morning.

As my younger two children boarded the bus at 6:50, it was sleeting pretty hard (not necessarily a road hazard, but worthy of further investigation) and turned on the TV.  A couple of school systems were closed or delayed, but those were north and east of us — the usual systems that close when no one else does.  Still, I left the news on, since I’d noted yesterday evening that the ground was frozen in my front yard… it’s been very cold the last couple of nights.

Beta wasn’t ready yet, but as the news came on that DOE had closed Bethel Valley Road due to black ice, I told her to just hang out for an extra hour and give it time to warm up a little.  I e-mailed a note to her first period teacher, and wrote a note for her to check in at the office.

It was subsequently announced that buses in Oak Ridge would run 1.25 hours late, but that was after the middle and high school run had already occurred.  I just learned a moment ago — literally, in the middle of the last sentence — that all after-school activities at Robertsville have been cancelled.

Good call.  This ice sort of took everyone by surprise, because the weather-guessers had predicted rising temperatures.  Even now, today’s forecast high is 42, but it’s only 34 as of 1:52 p.m.

The last thing I remember the weather guy saying this morning is "there’s NO chance of this stuff re-freezing for the afternoon commute," whereupon I clarified to Beta that we’d just received the best odds of bad weather one can get.

I’m out of bread, but I have what I need to bake some.  I think that’s just what I’ll do.

Stay home, be safe, and focus on what’s most important for tonight.

Politiconomics

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The January 19 issue of the Frontline Weekly Newsletter points out a dangerous undercurrent of the year’s political tide: tinkering with the federal reserve for political gain.

In summary, the appointment of President Bush’s two nominees for the Federal Reserve Board are being held up by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT. Dodd has also announced that he will not allow confirmation of a third member, Randy Krozner (whose expertise is in mortgage markets) when his term ends.

Why would Dodd do this? He has made it clear that he is not happy with Fed policy, as has his counterpart in the House, Barney Frank; so some of this is just personal pique. They want the Fed to respond to their political goals. But some of it is clearly partisan. If there is a Democratic president, they would be able to immediately nominate three new governors, and would not have to reconfirm Ben Bernanke as chairman, which means he would leave and the new president would appoint the chairman.

Dodd clearly wants a say in this, and wants a Fed that will pay attention to his politically driven needs. This would mean the Fed would be short-staffed for at least another 18 months, which is not a good thing. The Fed does more than just hold eight meetings and set monetary policy. They have real work that needs to get done.

Whoever the new president is, they will get to nominate who they like as governor terms come to an end. But to act as Dodd is currently doing threatens the independence of the Fed, which is a critical part of the economic world. You can criticize the Fed and their policies, and I often do, but every right-thinking person agrees that Fed policy should not be set in Congress and subject to political whim. The last time we had a Fed chairman who let politics suggest policy was William Miller under Jimmy Carter, and that did not turn out well.

Politics is a merry mess, as evidenced by any day’s viewing of the continuous news channels in this election year. However, the security and prosperity of this country is far too important to be used as a pawn by those who wish to promote their own (or their own party’s) political future.

I remember the economy of the Carter years, and the prospect of a politicized Federal Reserve is a frightening one.

Affairs in Order

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Courtesy of my little sister, via e-mail:

 

A woman went to her doctor. The doctor, after an examination, sighed and said, ‘I’ve some bad news. You have cancer, and you’d best put your affairs in order.’

The woman was shocked, but managed to compose herself and walk into the waiting room where her daughter had been waiting. ‘Well daughter, we women celebrate when things are good, and we celebrate when things don’t go so well. In this case, things aren’t well. I have cancer. Let’s head to the club and have a martini.’

After 3 or 4 martinis, the two were feeling a little less somber. There were some laughs and more martinis. They were eventually approached by some of the woman’s old friends, who were curious as to what the two were celebrating. The woman told her friends they were drinking to her impending end. ‘I’ve been diagnosed with AIDS.’ The friends were aghast and gave the woman their condolences.

After the friends left, the woman’s daughter leaned over and whispered, ‘Momma, I thought you said you were dying of cancer, and you just told your friends you were dying of AIDS.’

The woman said, ‘I don’t want any of those b*****s sleeping with your father after I’m gone.’

That’s ‘Putting our Affairs In Order’