Not a nice Monday!

As Mondays go, this isn’t a very nice one. Gator Wife is home from her part time job today because she is not feeling well. She went to bed last night shortly after six after spending much of the afternoon lying on the couch mostly sleeping. It’s an extreme rarity for GW to call in to her work place with that ‘won’t be in today’ message. So when she makes that call, I know she’s really not feeling well.

She says she’ll call her doctor later today to see if she can get in to that office today. I’ve got to tell you, that call is as rare as her calling in sick. I think it all probably started a few weeks ago when another very rare event happened; she came home in the middle of her shift feeling poorly. She called her doctor that time, too. She says her condition today is similar. She said if she had one, she'd think it was a gall bladder problem.

I’ll take care of the house today and let her take it as easy as she can. I am encouraging her to make that phone call this morning.

Tropical storm Hannah has come and gone. If you read my weekend post, you know I put my faith in the Channel 6 weather gal. That was a mistake as the storm came through here almost unnoticed. Now that probably wasn’t the way it was in all of Maine. In fact it looked like Down East sections really got clobbered. Especially with rain.

During the day on Saturday when we were supposed to get drenched, the storm passed our part of the state well out to sea. My little plot of soil barely got wet and we even got some sunshine. What wind there was hardly moved the trees. Gator daughter and her dog came over and hers and ours played outside most of the time they were here. I’m not calling it a disappointment as anytime once can miss much of a major storm is a good time.

Saturday night was a slightly different story. My rain gauge said four and three quarters inches of rain fell. It started after dark and by the time we got up yesterday morning, the storm had passed. I would say the little culvert between our house and that of our neighbor did get rather full. I had said I’d try to get pictures to post here today, but it was all back to normal by the time we got up. So, no pictures.

The high water mark on the other side does indicate in may have overflowed the little bridge we have between the properties. But without wind, Hannah passed without any damage in our neighborhood. I did see on the television that some areas experienced power outages, though.

Did you see in yesterday’s paper that the State Department of Education is throwing out the results of a writing test it gives as part of the state’s Learning Results battery of tests? Seems 78% of the eighth graders who took the test failed to meet standards. That doesn’t surprise me after reading in the same article what teachers are calling writing these days. A book report, for example, consisted of one picture and a simple sentence. That leaves a question or two: Who failed? The DOE, the curriculum,the teachers, or the kids? The DOE will never admit failure. Teachers generally teach the prescribed curriculum. It’s hard to blame the kids for failing something they’re not taught how to do, isn’t it?

My wife is more important to me today than this post is, so I’m cutting it short. I want to be at her call if she needs me. And I think I’ll know better than she will admit as the day progresses.

GiM