A big birthday

but not mine. Wife is 50 now. A milestone, but not a sudden one, a sort of transition into a different frame of thinking. Plus AARP.

Nature serenaded me during my morning routine. Walking Purl first and had a couple of woodpeckers telegraphing to each other, one right across the street. Still plenty of deadwood from Hurricane Elvis almost a decade ago. Then with Meredith, to accompany the woodpeckers I heard geese. Those Canadian Geese are a fixture year round, so I kind of looked for the normal 2 or 3 low flying ones. Nope...over 100 in several large chevrons, probably 1000 feet up. And still their honking was not just audible but loud.

I really like woodpeckers. Not sure if it is the amazingly round circles they make, or that they are so different from other birds. Or the bright red plumage on their heads. But they are cool.

Birthdays mean lots of people at the house, and hustle and bustle to get ready. This time I didn't cook - that duty fell to my nephew - since his wife's mother is my wife's older sister and they share a birthday. A couple of different crock-pot roasts which were really good.

Since this is not the first time I have forgotten to post before logging out for the night, wondering if I am going to change to a morning recap. Then again, some mornings I am rushed, and of course thoughts and ideas fade with sleep. Which reminds me that Friday night I got a chuckle from the news. Presented sensationally, as befits a "scandal" type of story - two administrators at a middle school were placed on leave pending an investigation into improper practices and procedures. Then flash the pictures of my former principal and assistant principal. No more details were available, and naturally the announcement and letter to students came on a Friday, so the school system can't/won't comment until Monday, when most people have forgotten. I know a few of the shady things they did, and most were geared toward over-working and under-appreciating teachers. But mainly they just did what they wanted to avoid the paperwork of doing it by the book. Of course, what they wanted was against policy - like demanding a Special Ed teacher take on a classroom and classes vacated by a teacher in the middle of the year, basically doubling her workload and minimizing her effectiveness to the students she was hired to help. Or deciding to remove a first-year teacher by giving bad evaluations and then fabricating observations. A story to watch for sure.