Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains are so close, we don’t take advantage of it often enough.  This week, we were there twice — skiing on Wednesday, and for Gamma’s performance with the All-State East Orchestra today.

With some time to kill this morning, we took Delta to the Aquarium.  Seriously, if not for the enormous crowd of people that showed up about noon, we could have stayed there all day.  Instead, we took a picnic lunch up to the Chimneys, and enjoyed a simple lunch in 60-ish degree weather, with snow on the ground all around us.

The concert was wonderful, but I’ll have more on that tomorrow.

I awoke at 3:30 a.m. yesterday, mulling over the several things on my schedule and everything that needed to be done in between.  But my inbox held a message from the Superintendent, indicating that schools would be closed.  By 5:30, the automated phone call confirmed it.

That cleared my schedule, as all of my meetings or commitments were either directly tied to the schools, or with organizations that automatically cancel if school is called off for weather.  In realizing that I no longer needed to pack Delta’s dinner for her school ski club trip, I lamented that the ski club would be missing what would undoubtedly be one of the prime skiing days in terms of snow quality in Gatlinburg.

Yeah, I know.  "Snow quality" and "Gatlinburg" are terms that don’t normally belong in the same sentence, but snow on the slopes midweek, when most of the yahoos in camouflage are otherwise occupied, sparks a longing to ski.

By the time that the rest of the family awakened, I’d already assembled my gear.  HWTFM took my car to work, leaving me with his snow-friendly 4WD… but by 8:30, temptation overtook him and he looked at the Ober Gatlinburg snow report online.  At that point, he called home and asked me to wait — he was joining us.

There were a number of others from Oak Ridge who had the same thought, it seems.  Delta found quite a few of her ski club friends on the mountain, and I found parents who, like me, didn’t want their kids to miss out.  Some of the parents weren’t even skiing, just waiting and watching out the window!

Education is very important in this family, so know that we used our time wisely.  Engaged in interactive learning, we studied Newton’s First Law of motion, and tested the effects of gravity and friction thereon.  There was also a bit of chemistry review in observing the efficacy of CaCl in the ihibition of freezing water on sidewalks, parking lots, and hairpin turns in the road; also, we noted the oxidation of steel in the edges of our skis, in need of a tuneup.  English was not left out, as Delta engaged in reading for an hour and a half in the car. 

We observed the effects of wind on trees at altitude, incorporating a little life science.  There was some practical application of geometry in gauging the exact angle of skis over a ripple in the terrain to yield a trajectory for maximum altitude, not to mention that we definitely met the Phys Ed requirements for the day.  The only thing that was shortchanged was probably social studies… though Delta could cite her observations that people wearing camouflage can’t ski, and are likely to present a dangerous obstacle at some point on the slope.

I’m sure she’ll be much more attentive in school today, having had a chance to put all her studies to use yesterday.  I know I’ll be more productive.

Does Tennessee need to come up with a kinder, gentler method of execution?  Some folks think so.

Ol’ Sparky was probably anything but kind or gentle, but he got the job done — quickly.  The current standard is a three drug cocktail (used by 37 states) of "an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer, and a substance to stop the heart."

Either of which, of course, is more comfortable and humane than 30 more years in prison, I’d think.

None of the options are likely as bad as what was done to the victims of whatever crime was committed to land the prisoner on death row in the first place.

In being humane, how many of us have had a pet euthanized in the vet’s office?  I have.  I hated like hell to do it, but most caring people agree that lethal injection is sometimes the kindest, most compassionate option.

If justice is the goal, then perhaps they should just take Steve Henley home, shoot him, and burn down the house.  That is, after all, the punishment he dealt out to an elderly couple, all because he perceived they owed him something.

Now, we owe him something too.

Yesterday’s surprise snow gave us a second test of the new parental alert system — calling off school mid-morning.

We made the most of it, with hot chocolate, fresh oatmeal cookies, movies and board games for the afternoon.  There wasn’t really enough snow on the ground for sledding and such, but just enough slush on the roads to call safety into question.  It also wasn’t the same all over town, as the east side of town seemed to get more accumulation on the roads than out west, where we live.

I felt some sympathy for Dr. Bailey in having to make that call: no matter what, someone will always be unhappy with the decision.  If he closes school, half the parents are unhappy because they have to take time off work; if he does not, half the parents complain that he’s putting the children at risk.  I know that yesterday’s snow wasn’t huge, but just a few miles outside our boundary, an Anderson County school bus slid off the road with a full load of children.  Fortunately, no one was hurt — but that’s the kind of risk we’d like to avoid.

For years, we went along with our three snow days in reserve, never using all of them.  I think there were a couple where we didn’t use any at all, which always made me wonder why we couldn’t add them to Spring Break, lop them off the end of the year, or toss in a couple of three-day weekends in May.  This year though, there’s the opposite concern: we could run out of snow days, and have to make them up somewhere.

In Tennessee, our biggest snowfalls have historically come in February or March.  I even remember a good one on April 1.  So, today’s question is, did the kids stay in school long enough yesterday to count for a day’s attendance by state standards, which would mean that we still have two potential snow days in reserve?

UPDATE: I’ve confirmed that Monday’s early dismissal will not count as one of our three snow days, which is a good thing.  We still have our two snowiest months to go.

The official list has not been released, but via Kleinheider, an unofficial committee roster has been leaked.

The House Education Committee is divided 11-11 between R’s and D’s, with the K-12 subcommittee similarly split, 6-6.  Education will tentatively be chaired by Harry Brooks (R-Knox Co.), with K-12 chaired by Les Winningham (D-Scott Co.), the previous Ed Committee Chair.

I’m in the process of evaluating the committee makeup now — legislative experience, education background, support or opposition to issues of interest (BEP 2.0, elected vs. appointed superintendents, etc.), and will post that later today.  At first blush though, it caught my attention that six of the Ed Committee members are from Shelby County.  That seems a little weighted for one county out of 95, knowing that Shelby Co. and Memphis school systems are quite different than most of the rest of the state.

[Larger PDF version]

Early observations of this unofficial roster:

• 7 of the 12 K-12 Subcommittee members are from the large, urban, consolidated school districts (Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville);
• Average legislative experience of Democrats: 14 years
• Average legislative experience of Republicans: 6 years

I have to admit, it kind of floored me that Bill Dunn was appointed to K-12, since his own five children are home-schooled.  Certainly, there’s more research to be done on this group… prior voting records, issue positions, etc.

*  *  *

The official committee assignments are out now, and the Ed Committee appears to be the same as reported earlier.

Gamma has had a string of successes this week, though she had to work hard for each and every one.

Thursday was one of those infamous hell-days known well to juniors at the high school: the national German exam, an AP Physics test, Major Author due for Jr. AP, and an AP US History paper due.

By the time she got home, she was wiped out.  The good part was, her new iPod Touch arrived, that she purchased with her own earnings from babysitting.  She’s had it plugged in almost continuously ever since — listening to music, playing with the various applications, surfing the web, and checking her e-mail.

On Friday, we learned that she scored an "A" in Physics on her report card.  On Saturday, she went to the All-East Orchestra tryouts, but she seemed convinced that she didn’t make it, having messed up her prepared piece "pretty bad."

Last night, we learned that she did indeed make All-East, so she’ll be playing at the Park Vista in Gatlinburg next month.  This morning, we found out that she was also successful in her audition for the new Oak Ridge Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is pretty exciting.

All told, it was a pretty darn successful first week back in school.  Needless to say, I’m pleased.

If only the rest of us can keep up with her, it’ll all be good.

The kids were all otherwise occupied last night, so Hubby and I had a date night.  Being the manly man that he is, he agreed to forego the movie I refused to see, and took me to what ended up being a serious chick-flick.

I’d already read (and heard, via NewsTalk100) reviews of The Day the Earth Stood Still, which was pretty well panned even by people who like sci-fi as being too AlGore-ified to be very good.  I go to movies to be entertained, not brainwashed.  Hubby though, is a sci-fi addict — even the really bad ones.

7 Pounds was a good, but very serious movie.  I’d rate it as well worth the tickets.

Afterward, we had a romantic dinner at El Cantarito… such a good time!