Where There's Smoke...

Scandal in a small town is like a grass fire out of control; the smoke is everywhere and those that like a good fire are sorry when it gets put out. Our small Kansas town has had it's share of scandals lately, but the one that has all the gossip-mongers in ecstasy has to do with a young woman (over18) working at the high school and a male student (under18)...enough said. This young woman's situation is, to say the least, very sad. She is looking at real jail time, her family, her husband's family (yes, she was newly married in September) and the boy's family have been humiliated, and it's not over yet. It's really just getting started. 

The truly interesting thing, though, is that in this age of the internet and instantly available information, our little community has embraced the technological age and all of the current gossip is now online. The local radio station has a 'local news' page (I use the term news here, loosely) and everybody is posting their little hearts out. The station posts a news blurb, usually from the local newspaper's site, and then the 'community' posts comments. But, members can also start their own threads. That should terrify everyone, in my opinion, and not just because it shows that illiteracy is a problem here. While the biggest problem is the lack of facts, it is rather painful to read some of those posts. Kind of like listening to someone play the violin who doesn't know how. Back to the point; the potential for spiteful revenge should have us all concerned. There is a disclaimer down at the bottom in very small font and included in that is an admonishment to be polite, and it also states that comments may be deleted by the moderator, but I don't see a moderator anywhere. Yikes! I saw several comments that should have been deleted...

Monday was ca-razy! Both my boys had ball games; T-Ball at 7 pm & Baseball at 7:45. Every Monday is going to be like that for the next 5 weeks. The T-ball game was a lot of fun. The other team was a hoot to watch because every time one of our kids hit the ball, every kid on the field would run after the ball. It was swarm intelligence, lol. All of these little guys in orange shirts running after the ball would have looked like a swarm of insects if seen from above at a considerable distance. Or maybe an orange school of sardines, hee hee. Tucker's baseball team won their game, and this year he is in the Cal Ripkin League, so they are sponsored by local businesses. That means that when they win, they get to go to the local restaurant they are being sponsored by and get free ice cream. Which makes me wonder what the kids who are being sponsored by the other funeral home in town get when they win??  Think about that!  Ha!

Heroes and Legends

It's that time of year already...just 10 days left of school, baseball games start this week, and the tornado sirens are being tested. The school year has gone by so fast - Sully will be in 1st grade and Tucker will be in 5th. One more year until Middle School for him - there's a scary thought! 

This year will be different as the school board has decided to change the elementary schools into 'Attendance Centers'. K through 2nd in our current school, and 3rd through 5th in the other school. It means that Tucker and Sully will be separated and Tucker will go over to the East side of town for school. Nobody wanted this and they told the public in the beginning that it was to save the school district money. That was a huge lie because it's not saving any money and it's actually going to cost more money. They initially said it would reduce staff, but that's not true either as the only people leaving are those that were already scheduled to retire, which I'm glad that nobody will be losing their job. We know it will cost at least $20k more to run the buses now - possibly more. It's not that it's a terrible idea; it will help towards eliminating the whole East side-West side thing, true, but I think the bigger bite in the butt is that our leadership never listens to us, and they lie to us to forward their agenda. Yeah, I like that the 5th graders won't be able to pick on the little ones, and the bullying may be a little easier to get under control, but a bully is a bully and it will still happen. There's something to be said for having an older brother or sister around to help a little one out when they need it. I feel for the responsible adults of multiple children that will be spread all over town in different schools! Getting their kids to school will be less than fun. Not everybody likes to utilize the bus system - a lot of bullying goes on while riding the bus, and the kids learn a lot of new words. Yay! Isn't that what we all want??

We had our first tornado watch of the season last night. This morning there were a lot of trees down due to straight line winds - dodged a few of them on my way to work - down trees, that is. Yesterday was the funeral for a cousin of mine - my dad's niece. I have some awesome memories of her and my mom. They were close and always had a lot of fun together. Sandi, even though she stood a little over 5 feet, was larger than life, and as her brother said at the service, she walked around with rainbows in her pockets. (an old Elvis song) No matter what happened in her life, she kept fighting, and nothing got her down for long. Her son, Todd and I used to be really close, and then as happens a lot, we drifted our own ways and got out of touch. It was really good to see him again. Painful, yes - still pretty fresh for me, so seeing him like I was not too awful long ago, one of the walking wounded, was tough. It was like looking at myself just a little over a year ago. But still, we got to visit a little and reconnect, and it was great to have my friend again. We've added each other on Facebook, got emails, compared phones-he has an iPhone (awesome!) - so keeping in touch will not be difficult. 

There's a line from the movie Sandlot that I like that makes me think of Sandi.(it could actually be a quote of Babe Ruth, but I don't know for certain) "Heroes get remembered. Legends never die." She was a hero to some of us, but most definitely a legend.