Boomer1123

My 19 year old is going to college tomorrow..........for the first time. After HS she decided to take it easy for awhile. Grabbed a Part time job here and there and basically mooched off everyone. She finally passed he road test in June and dummy me, leased a new car for her. I felt it was a beeter idea considering if it was used there might be problems. Anyway 2378 miles later she was in her first accident. She pulled out of a parking lot and was broadsided by another car. Not a terrible accident and thankfully she wasn't hurt, but in the rain and the cold a great epiphany occurred.

We got home, she had a good cry and made a conscious decision to change her life. A couple of days later we were registering for Community College, she took a math placement test and went to Staples to get notebooks. I have an older daughter that is in her senior year now. She's a B+ student that wants to teach Biology. She's captain of her college Softball team and hit .517 last year. Even with all that and the pride I feel for her, I don't think I'll ever be as proud of my kids as I am today. The little one has made great strides and even if she fails, she has a new outlook on life.

I'm a lucky Dad.

Well, here goes.  My first attempt at being one of the guys.  I have been wanting to start a Blog for some time, but never had the motivation.  Todya, I made the trip from beautiful downtown Fort Edward, New York.  A somewhat beat up town outside of Glens Falls, Ft. Edward is know basically for nothing except being a stop on the Rutland VT to NY Penn Station Express.  

Once on the train I thought it would be a good idea to read a book and view the sights.  I have never been on a train upstate so I was looking forward to the trip.  The early part of the trip was a series of horse farms and beat up barns.  There was nothing that looked new and everything had that familar gray palor.  Entering Saratoga brought a bit of life in that the houses visible looked more expensive. 

I continued reading ansome time later we entered Renseleer, a suburb of Albany.  We stopped for a time and I grabbed a cup of coffee, sat down and looked out to see a school and a football field.  It was probably a high school based on the size, but it was bleak.  The goal posts were bent and rusty, the field itself was beat up.  The bleachers were wooden, chipped and basically old.  And there was no customary track around the field.  The school itself looked like it was built in the 60's when the population was growing.  4 tennis courts had sagging nets and dead weeds growing through cracks.  A lone securtiy car stood guard over nothing.

In the backgroud was Albany.  The thriving metropolis of our state's Capitol.  Another fucking wannabe city that tries to be like it's big, steroid filled brother Manhatten.  There were barand new towers in the background, about 40 stories I would say.  Probably filled with 30 something ties and skirts that received their public education at a school with a track around the football field.  It pissed me off that the State Capitol Region would let a school look like that.  Albany is filled with hypocrits and pussies.  The biggest pussy is Elliot Spitzer.  He talks so much shit about fiscal responsibility but could give two shits about education and its crumbling infrastructure.

Remember last year when this wonderful thing call EXCEL $ came through.  Schools lined up to fix what was broken.  Schools like the one I saw was PROMISED millions of FREE state aid.  Well guess what kiddies, they LIED.  When we stood on line with our requests to fix what was broken, we were told it was a loan.  Voters voted to accept the "FREE" money.  Well what the voters accepted was a chance to BORROW money and give the debt service to the taxpayer.  SLick Shit.

Fuck Elliot Schister, because now he's told us that we still owe NYC Schools $ and state aid will be cut.  Newsday obligingly goes after teachers salaries and blame them for the plight.  Forget that the NYSED has mismanaged the entire system and that the NYS Regents is as outdated as the Printing Press.  NCLB is no better.  We get 4-500% increases in the Spanish population and we're told to teach them English in a year or else, more cuts.  But we still have to teach them.  It's like charging peeople with bad credit higher interest rates.  They never recover unless they hit the lottery.

Wake up New York.  Read Boomsday.  Root for the Giants.

Posted in Personal