Recently, a Colorado Springs school banned tag on playgrounds. Tag? TAG? You’ve GOT to be kidding me! Oh yes, it is banned.

An elementary school has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will……Running games are still allowed as long as students don’t chase each other…

This decision follows a similar rule made by a nearby school district back in 2005.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think these decisions are being made for the wrong reasons. I think it’s much less about school safety or avoiding kids getting their feelings hurt, and much MORE about teachers not wanting to have to actually supervise playground play…or they are trying to avoid any and all questions from parents about how they supervise the play (or not).

Seriously….an adult can clearly see if a child is being chased under duress (if they’re paying attention). And if they see it, they should stop. They SHOULD….but apparently at these Colorado schools they don’t. Instead they turn a blind eye while chatting amongst themselves, and then when things escalate to the point where kids are telling their parents about it and then parents are questioning the supervision on the playground…..they have to find away to avoid blame. Oh NO…we can’t have that…parents questioning whether or not playground supervisors are actually supervising.

When The Boy was in elementary school…I can tell you for a fact that they did not supervise playground play. Instead, the teachers stood together under a tree with their backs to the kids talking amongst themselves. I won’t go into details….but let’s just say they were called on it by certain parents and then the policy changed and the teachers were required to actually watch the kids from different corners of the playground (as it should have been all along).

I just don’t think it’s fair that the kids have to get all the fun activities taken away (tag, football, basketball, swings, jungle gyms) so the teachers can have an easier time of it. Yes, it’s babysitting if you look at it that way…but that’s what the teachers signed up for when they went into the profession. Lately it seems the administrators are more interested in making sure they can’t be “blamed” for any possible injury or incident than they are making sure the kids get a break from school and a chance to run around, play at the game of their choice, or take a quiet moment to climb on the jungle gym or swing.

If they keep this up, recess will consist of nothing more than kids standing on the playground in perfect rows being silent so they don’t say anything to “make other kids feel bad”. Ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.

So….do you think games, equipment, etc. should be taken away from the playground in the interest of “protecting” the kids? Or, do you think it’s more about the schools removing any and all possible blame for things that “could” happen if the teachers aren’t supervising play as they should?

My brother-in-law sent me this. I’m not necessarily saying I agree with all parts…..but I found it rather funny. You might not. If you don’t, well then you just don’t know how to laugh at yourself every now and then.

Enjoy, and please pass it along if you feel you must.

THE HISTORY OF BEER

HISTORY

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals; and
2. Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That’s how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q’s and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women.

The rest became known as girliemen.

Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant.

Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.

Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn’t fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, and generally anyone who works productively.

Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today’s lesson in world history: It should be noted that a liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it. A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to tic them off.

Heh. Now that’s just funny.

1. People that refuse to use turn signals at a four-way intersection.

2. People that go when it’s not their turn at a four-way stop.

3. People that make u-turns when it is clearly marked that this is not allowed.

4. People that turn left when there is a sign saying no left turn.

5. People that cut in line at the school drop-off – yes, I know they are SO much more important than me.

6. People that insist on using the 10 items or less express lane at the store when they know they have more than 15 items in their cart.

7. People that stand WAY too close to me in line…I need my space! Hate close standers. Hate ‘em.

8. I’ve said this before, but people that wait until their total is on the screen, and then either dig through their wallet for exact change, or stand there and write out a whole check AND balance their check book before handing the check over. SO annoying.

9. People that talk REALLY loud on their cell phones in public (restaurants and movie theaters are the worst).

10. People that drive while talking on their cell phone, completely disregarding the color of street lights and refusing to stay in their own lane.

11. Moms who don’t buckle their kids in because it’s “too much trouble”.

12. Okay, most everything everyone else does annoys me. I freely admit it.

Can you tell it’s the first day of school and I had to be up like super early and had errands to run? I’m gonna go have a drink I think. It’s gotta be five o’clock somewhere in the world….

P.S. I hope The Boy is having a better day at school than I am at home.

I know it’s always risky when a person buys a house at an auction. But one would think that a mansion that costs millions would at least be in some state of repair.

But now…this poor schmuck bought his next door neighbor’s house and he’s stuck with:

Piles of feces were found in every room in the home, the two tubs in the master suite were covered in at least two inches of fecal matter, and pet food was littered around the house.

According to the article, there were more than 100 cats and dogs running around the house, with at least 23 more dead animals in the garage and elsewhere.

Seriously….at what point did the couple become immune to the whole smell and feces thing? Why were they still even living there? And if they cared so much about animals why didn’t they try and find them a decent place to live instead of tossing them into the garage as they died?

Geez…some people. Some things I just will never understand.

Also….this is a lesson for buyers looking for a cheap deal. If you’re bidding on a place and the current owners won’t let you past the front door to take a look around and you notice a strange smell around the the property, you probably should move on to the next opportunity. Seriously, the guy had to have smelled SOMETHING, don’t you think?

I’ve always wondered about those things. Some of them are pretty big and it seems to me like any number of things could easily walk into a house at any time.

Today I saw this article about one such occurrence. Seems that two pit bulls went in through a neighbor’s doggie door and attacked her while she was in bed.

Two pit bull terriers broke into a house through a pet door Tuesday and attacked a woman in her bed, mauling her badly…The woman was able to grab a gun and try to shoot the dogs, then break away from the attack and lock herself in her car, where she called 911, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

The woman, who was not immediately identified, was taken to a hospital in Tacoma, where she was listed in serious condition.

Horrible, right? Sort of makes you think twice about having a pet door, that’s for sure. We’ve never had one because of varmints and I’m so scared always about someone being able to break in. Paranoid, I guess.

Don’t get me wrong here…I’m not a pit bull-hater. But I DO hate on anyone that takes a pit bull and turns it into something that would even contemplate an attack such as this.

So…do you have a pet door? If so, does hearing about this make you have second thoughts about it?

If you stop by here every now and then, you probably know that I absolutely HATE for anyone to solicit me for ANYTHING. This includes solicitations to join a church, buy insurance, get lawn care, buy magazines, or basically to do or buy anything which I haven’t specifically asked to do or buy.

So here we are….about 10 days before school starts. And….THE FOOTBALL TEAM IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!! This week they have accosted me at the grocery store (entering and leaving), at the gas station, and…..AT MY FRONT DOOR. Two of them came by today and I didn’t open my door. But finally I answered the door for the third kid. He asked me if I wanted to “buy a discount card” to support the team. I pointed to my sign in the window which respectfully requests no sales solicitations….please.

He said, “Well this isn’t me asking you to buy something so much as it is asking you to help out the team.”

I said, “Are you trying to sell me something?”

He said, “Well, yeah….”

So I wished him luck and said no thanks.

You know what? He would have had MUCH better luck if he’d simply asked me for a check. Hiding donation requests under the guise of magazine sales for a trip or discount cards for a team to me does not sound like a very good idea. Oh I know…people like to feel like they’re “getting” something for their money while at the same time they get to pat themselves on the back for doing something to contribute to this cause or that team.

When The Boy was in band and they had a fund raiser….I just asked how much they were looking to net per kid and wrote a check for that amount. Personally, I don’t think it’s right that the kids are sent out to beg people to buy stuff so they can get “donations” for their program. If a kid is on a team or in a group that requires additional funding, the parents should think about that before they allow the kid to move forward on joining or trying out. It should not be the community’s responsibility to fund the trips or the awards banquets or the uniforms. I’d like to think the high taxes we pay would fund the basics like uniforms and travel…and I’m always left wondering what the sales donation revenues actually wind up funding.

Maybe I’d be a little bit more willing to help fund a team my kid’s not on if they were a little bit more clear about it being a donation and were more specific about what the additional money would be paying for. Maybe….but probably not. Like I said, I think either the school or the participating kids’ parents should be paying the money. Sending kids out to beg for money to participate in a program is just wrong.

But that’s just me, I guess. They must have some luck with the supermarket, gas station, and door-to-door harassment or they wouldn’t do it all day.

So….do you buy donate when the kids or religious groups come calling?

Yes, the day on which we all have to get up WAY earlier than we have all summer – only to be corralled along with all the other sleepy parents and kids into a gym – to listen…..to the principal…..talk and talk and talk and talk. ABOUT NOTHING!!

Why do they have to do that? I know they think we all wait each year to hear their words of wisdom and listen to the PTA President try and “sell” us on memberships and the buying of school t-shirts.

But seriously…I don’t think I know of ANYONE who cares about getting a lecture about how great the school thinks they are or wants to listen to a PTA sales pitch.

When all they really wanna do…is…GET THE SCHEDULE, GET THE SCHOOL SUPPLIES, AND GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE!!

I do have to say were smart about it this year. We walked out in the middle of the principal’s ramblings, split up to get the supplies and schedule, and then got out of there fast. We were at the front of all the lines. Because that’s how we roll.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the principal is STILL lecturing in that gym about how great the school is….I’m sure there are a few who might still be listening.

Yeah, I know. It’s been a while since I posted. But guess what? I just haven’t felt like it. But I figured I should at least do a list to catch up on things so you know I’m still here.

1. The Texas heat is finally here. It was late this year.

2. So I’ve been spending my free time outside in the pool vs. on the computer.

3. But now….it is 97 with a heat index of 106.

4. The spouse is now three weeks out of surgery.

5. This is a good thing because he was well enough to mow the lawn this week!

6. That, or….he got sick of hearing me complain about having to mow the lawn.

7. Regardless….I didn’t have to do it!

8. I cut back some on my workouts…and then I dropped a jeans size.

9. WTF?

10. Screw doing an hour of cardio…45 or 50 min. will do it for me from now on I guess.

11. Maybe I should cut out cardio all together and see what happens?

12. I’ve been making guacamole like three times a week…and I still lost a jeans size!

13. The Boy is getting moody.

14. Yes he is 13 and that goes along with being 13.

15. But mostly it’s because school starts on the 27th.

16. I know I hated going to school so I can’t really blame him.

17. All clothes and school supplies (other than the kit from orientation next week) have been purchased.

18. I think his mood will only get worse once orientation happens.

19. Then he will only have 10 days left before school starts.

20. I’m trying really hard not to skip through the house singing a happy tune whenever I think of it.

21. Really, I am.

22. But sometimes he catches me.

23. And then he goes and sulks in his room.

24. Oh, well.

25. Time to go check the guacamole.

26. I Hope everyone is enjoying the last bit of their summer!

P.S. Are you sick of all the pre-emptive election season politics? I know I am. But one thing about all the coverage does come to mind…..I’m not so sure it would be a good idea to elect a guy who’s not sure if he’ll invade and/or use nukes and keeps changing his answer mid-sentence because he’s worried about how it will sound to the voting public. I just picture him sitting there with a finger poised over the button, waiting for the latest poll numbers to come in before he decides what to do. But maybe that’s just me…..