Thank you Rasita! Had she not mentioned that my feed was down I never would have fixed the problem. Turns out my feeds to the Rocky Top Brigade had stopped and many readers went without my life influencing bits and bytes.
The probem turned out to be laziness. In one post I decided to turn on Blogger’s Compose tab and cut and paste from MS Word to Blogger. MS Word’s xml is horrible! And conflicted with Blogger’s Atom feed. The MS gibberish has been removed and everything returns to "normal."
Student: I’ll never reach the end.
Master: Just get over the next hill.
…because Tommy had a fantastic birthday party at Ben & Jerry’s. Tommy is thrilled! The manager ran the party and did an exceptional job! We tie dyed t-shirts (and they all came out great! Matching the personalities of the makers.) When we took out our rubber gloves I spoke up, "So, any of the adults thinking Howie Mandel?" to which the store manager said, "Howie who?" We all laughed and he said, "No, seriously!" And my mother-in-law laughed and called me an "old person." Good moment!
…because I made major headway on fixing a closet that has been neglected since September 1997.
…because we are getting some pleasant and much needed rain.
Celebrating tommy at ben and jerrys
SayUncle shows us a cartoon from Time on intelligent design. Nice perspective!
…because I have the most loving, understanding and supportive wife in the world.
Anyone remember in the hayday of the Dukes every 4th car had a horn that sound just like the Genneral Lee? Da na naa na Naah nah Naaaah Na I find it ironic that as the Maryville Board of Education tries to make history disappear by banning references to our heritage that a cheesy movie will undoubtly bring rise to the sale of confederate flags and custom horns for your cars. Yes, beeping your horn may be illegal in Tennessee but sounding a charge will become just a friendly hello from one good ol’ boy to the next. Road kill anyone?
Btw, the horn law is Sec. 17-382. Horn; bells, sirens, etc.; warning devices on emergency vehicles.
(a) Every motor vehicle, when operated upon any road, street or highway of the city, shall be equipped with a horn in good working order capable of emitting sound audible under normal conditions from a distance of not less than two hundred (200) feet, and it shall be unlawful, except as otherwise provided in this section, for any vehicle to be equipped with or for any person to use upon a vehicle any siren or exhaust, compression or sparkplug whistle or for any person at any time to use a horn otherwise than as a reasonable warning or to make any unnecessary or unreasonably loud or harsh sound by means of a horn or other warning device.
Tool of the moment. Let’s go see how important that nub of a stud is in the girls room. Eh… That sentence kind of reads wrong. 
Student: Master, how am I to focus with so many distractions?
Master: A farmer does not catch his dinner by chasing all the chickens.
Have a look at these billboards in New Zealand picturing GW Bush and saying "Even Hell has its standards" and "Hell. Too good for some evil bastards." Apparently its advertising for Hell’s Pizza.
Have a peek.
…because the kids are excited to be off to school.
It appears I missed my happy thought yesterday. I wonder if not looking for a happy thought contributed to how unhappy I was yesterday.
My brother and sister-in-law have posted pictures from their visit including great shots from the horse show.
Tommy’s bus arrives at 7:10am. Last year the bus and Tommy were very much in sync. As the year went on Tommy would be more and more difficult to wake giving himself less time to prepare. Often he would go to school without breakfast. We tried sending him with a poptart on the bus but it seemed like too much of a reward plus he makes such a mess that he’d have food all over him, his face and the bus. Ironically as his wake time became later and later so did the arrival time of the bus eventually moving from 7:10 to 8:00.
Noah’s bus arrives at 7:22am. I spent 3 years fighting to get the bus off of Northshore Drive, a busy 45mph road frequently traveled at much higher speeds. Last year the street sign marking their offical bus stop was knocked down by an out of control driver. The stop sat just over the peak of a hill and at a blind corner, most blocked by overgrown honey suckle, where cars zip into the neighborhood.
Last year the bus driver, a kind older gentleman, agreed to turn into the neighborhood and pick the kids up at a much safer intersection. Upon his retirement halfway through the year the battle ensued again with a young punk driver writing me up as a "belligerent parent." Several heated phone calls and two days later a new driver was picking our children up at the safe intersection. I am happy to report that this year it is listed as the official pickup with Northshore as the official dropoff which is fine by me since the door opens to toward the neighborhood. The Northshore pickup originally had them crossing in front of cars and the bus to load.
In the past years other issues with this bus had been eratic pickup times and sometimes ignoring the stop all together. Officially the bus can be 15 minutes on either side of the noted pickup time. At one point this bus arrived as early as 7am and as late as 8am. Schools starts at 7:45am.
This year the bus arrived on time and at the right stop! Here’s hoping for a hassle free school year!
Last year was Sarah’s first year in middle school. Her stop was across Northshore, so I thought. I was bothered by her crossing Northshore but at first I would take Noah and her to Noah’s bus stop where I was watch over the elementary students. Her official bus time was the same 7:22 as Noah’s and since I could not be in two places at once I would let her walk up the block, cross Northshore and wait for her bus.
Over time I became uncomfortable with her crossing that busy road so I changed my route and would drive Sarah to her bus stop and drop her off. I’d then take Noah to his stop and stand watch over the elementary students. Soon another parent joined the watch.
Stories surfaced that a white pickup truck was cruising Northshore trying to pickup middle school girls a few miles from Sarah’s stop. I left the watch of the elementary stop to the other parents and have changed to being at Sarah’s stop. Occasionally I let her walk. Oh, I learned that her official stop is on our side of Northshore but all the kids like to gather together on the other side. The stop is down to Sarah and one other friend and I’m sure my presence has nothing to do with that.
Battle over. I started to help Amy. I put one thing in; she put in two. The neighbor was walking her dogs and Amy said, “I want to pet the puppies.” I told her that she could after the mess was cleaned up and she scooped up the clothes in 20 seconds flat.