It’s been a newsy week. My Mom got the walker she wanted and got trained in its use. If she drives to church Sunday, she will try putting the walker – or rollator (10 pounds) – in her car for the first time ever. Mom will finish up occupational therapy and physical therapy early this week and transition to exercising at the retirement center’s gym and in her apartment. Mom also entertained two guests today in her apartment, something that she feels more comfortable as she has straightened up and arranged her apartment even more. Mom also decided against visiting Ohio in a couple of weeks, because of the difficulties she expects traveling. Mom has taxed many of the remaining vacation days she had left. She is trying to work as close to 40 hours a week as she can and make it till June, when she may retire. She also has projects she wants to finish or tie up.
Stephanie found out from her principal and colleagues that she knows three of the four new teachers who will be working at her school next year, along with the influx of 100 students coming in from other schools. The list was made public earlier this week. No teacher will be leaving Fairmont (not even one teacher who wanted to leave). Stephanie’s school district closed four elementary schools and moved all 5th graders to middle school, you’ll recall, but basically laid off no teachers. The day after this decision was formalized, Indiana’s governor, whose budget was blamed for some of the need to close schools, criticized the school district for not laying off teachers instead. If the economy and budgets continue in the same vein next year, layoffs may be in order then.
Vincent originally talked about coming to visit this time for more than the usual week, but later this week we learned he’s back to a week. We’ll pick him up Sunday evening, partly so we can go to a concert with the Australian hard rock group AC/DC which we were supposed to see this fall and go to the annual Thunder Over Louisville air show and fireworks display at the Louisville waterfront. We’ll find out Monday whether we’ll get to go with our dog and meet a colleague and her son and use the Presbyterian Center as a home base. We’ve got other things we’d like to do with Vincent – he’s said yes to going to counseling and no to showing Stephanie’s Culture Club Korean martial arts – and we’ll hope to celebrate his birthday – which he’ll leave just two days before – but we’ll see what happens. This week Vincent’s father told us that the two online high school/college dual enrollment classes Vincent was taking – that cost just $100 total – including one he hadn’t just about finished – have timed out after a year, and so he’ll have to start all over again (if they don’t kick him out of the school). I’ll mention the GED route while he’s here. Vincent’s father also said the illness he’s been suffering from has been getting worse.
News from our dog and our house. We’ve been thinking we’d get Frisco a haircut some time this winter as part of a scheme to get him doggie day care. But he foiled our last attempt in Ohio when he bit the would-be stylist. But it was hot here this week and he was wilting in the heat and so we went out of a way to get his hair cut Thursday – and he got some other medication too (Frisco as I arrived to pick him up pictured above). A visiting repairperson last month alerted us that our furnace was in dangerous shape. After a month or so the landlord and the repair people he works with persuaded themselves to go ahead and replace the furnace, and they did the majority of the work today. We went for a couple of chilly nights with no furnace but it never got cold enough (down to 65 degrees) to use the space heater.
-- Perry
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