This morning at the office the printer/copy machine ran out of paper. I got a couple of reams and started to kneel down to put the paper in the bottom tray when a woman whom I wouldn’t classify as “young” asked, “Would you like me to do that? I’m younger than you…” That really brought me up short. I must be starting to look old … I sure don’t feel old!

Well, at least not until this evening. Five trees are being delivered and planted tomorrow. Tom, the mower boy, with vacation and school starting, hasn’t been able to mow the grass for about a month. The places were the trees are going were rather deep in grass. Tom couldn’t get here until tomorrow night. So, I’ve mowed the grass once again. I’m pooped. Andre Aggasi is loosing in the semifinals at the US Open. Maybe he’s feeling a bit old tonight as well. I was hoping he’d be able to pull it off and win a Major one last time. Time to go to the hot tub!

Stop the presses!!Three asprin and a soak in the hot tub, I came back quite refreshed to find Agassi had come back! The game went to five sets. Agassi pulled it out in a tie break! Incredible.

A HUGE Thumbs Down, however to the USA Network. I’ve sent them an email with the subject line: How Absolutely Stupid of You!!

The best game of the US Open. The absolutely incredible Agassi comeback.

You break away before the match is finished for an inane rerun of Law and Order.

How incrediby stupid. I remember the Heidi incident from a number of years ago. 
You've managed to be more stupid than that.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

You owe the tennis world a major apology along with eating a big dose of crow.

Roland

Today was canning day at our house. Nina’s friend donated a couple of big boxes of very ripe tomatoes that were canned this morning yielding 28 jars. We took a break in the early afternoon and got lunch out at a local restaurant. This afternoon and evening Nina has been canning the peaches. She’s got one more batch to go in to the water bath and 28 jars of peaches will be finished. It sure looks good and the day has definitely been productive!

I spent the afternoon moving computer equipment around. I’ve had my development server and my web server here in the office in a rack next to the desk. The room gets very warm during the summer months. I put a ceiling fan in a couple of weeks ago to get better air circulation in the room and that helped some, but I finally decided to move these two servers downstairs into the utility room. That room is always cool and in the winter gets fairly cold. Just right for servers! The two boxes are now downstairs and working. The office is at least five degrees cooler and later on I’m sure I’ll need to turn the ceiling fan down to the low setting.

That’s how we’ve spent our Labor Day holiday — canning and moving computers. Laboring away … and those peaches and tomatoes sure will taste good.

It’s a little after 11 a.m. and I’ve a few minutes before getting ready for Church. Today I’m teaching the Gospel Essentials class finishing up the last half of the first Missionary Lesson. I’m also substituting on the organ for Sacrament Meeting. Nina is up at the prison for the Kinport Branch church services. Bradica (the dog) is asleep on the floor, but every once in a while comes around to make sure it isn’t time to eat. It’s a sunny 75 degree day with the temperatures forecasted to climb to about 90 degrees with increasing winds and a chance of thundershowers.

Yesterday was a pretty busy day. We left the house about 8:30 to go to the farmers market where we picked up about 50 pounds of peaches, a dozen ears of corn, and some beans. Then we went to the nursery where Nina bought five trees and a bunch of bushes and plants. From there we went to Fred Meyers and picked up some groceries and some more plants. The cleaners was the final stop and then we came home. We were out the entire morning. After lunch we planted flowers by the back step and in the front near the house. I discovered a problem with the sprinkler system and got that fixed after digging up what seemed to be half the front yard. In the end the problem was a broken wire that was easily accessed and quickly fixed. Not so all the holes in the front yard! Things are mostly back to normal out there, however.

We have a practice of going out to dinner on the Saturday evening before Fast Sunday. Last night we went to Sizzler so we could use a discount check. The meal was nice and we enjoyed being out to eat. After that we went to Walmart to get some more canning jars (Nina bought the last of the jars at Fred Meyers earlier in the day) and a vacuum sealer for the vegetables that Nina wanted to freeze. The final stop was at Dillards where I bought a some suspenders to replace those that are wearing out.

The vacuum sealer works great! The peaches smell wonderful (peaches and cream for desert tonight — yum!). Canning season is well upon us as well as a quick trip to Brigham City to pick up more stuff to can. Life continues to be very good!

I’ve loaded up a few more pictures. Check the “pictures!” link on the right.

The headlines in the Idaho State Journal newspaper read: “District 25 fails to meet federal benchmark.” The subheading said: “Half of district’s schools fall below student progress standards.” The results of the federal mandated “No Child Left Behind” act testing was released. About half the schools here in Pocatello’s school district went on “alert” status — meaning that one or more student classification groups did not test “at grade level”. The “alert” status means that parents can request that their children be transported to a different school. In today’s paper the lead article was about the spin that school officials were putting on the test results. The paper quoted District Curriculum Director Chuck Wegner as saying, “Expecting every child in the public school system to perform on grade-level is unreasonable and infeasible.” There are a couple of interesting (to me) observations:

First, it won’t do any good for parents to request that their high school students be transferred to another high school. All three high schools here in Pocatello are on “alert” status. That’s right: Pocatello High, Century High, and Highland High are failed to provide a sufficiently good educational experience so that all the students were able to test at grade level.

Secondly, even the school officials can’t count. The standards were that 95% of the students in grades 3, 8, and 10 were to be tested. 72% of them needed to test at grade level in Reading and 60% needed to test at grade level for math. Attention please, Mr. Wegner. The requirement is not that every student has to test at grade level. Three or four out of every ten students can fail the test and the school (or the district) will still make the goal. You must think the public is pretty dumb.

Finally, school officials blamed the failure on a lack of funding. Parents should not be alarmed; it was only one or two groups of students, such as those who are disadvantaged, that failed to pass the test. Whoopee. That sure makes me feel better.

When will the schools ever get it? Their job is to educate the students. All of them. Schools hate the testing process because it demonstrates that what the schools are doing best is failing to educate. I learned many years ago that what gets measured gets done. I am fanatically in favor of testing. The schools take a lot of my money. I want my money’s worth back. I want them to teach students to read, to write, to be able to count, to know a bit about history and science, and to know what it means to be a citizen of this country. I don’t want excuses. It isn’t a matter of money. There is more than sufficient money available for education. It’s a matter of accountability.

So, for the record, here’s the report card:

Century High School: Economically disadvantaged — math

Claude A. Wilcox Elementary School: Students with disabilities — reading

Franklin Middle School: Hispanic — reading

Greenacres Elementary School: Economically disadvantaged — reading

Hawthorne Middle School: math proficiency; American Indian — reading and math; Hispanic — math; economically disadvantaged — math; students with disabilities — reading and math (this is a school with lots of “opportunities for improvement”)

Indian Hills Elementary School: Students with disabilities — math

Irving Middle School: Students with disabilities — math

Kinport Academy: reading, math proficiency

New Horizons High School: reading, math proficiency; third indicator — graduation rate

Pocatello High School: Economically disadvantaged — reading, math

Tyhee Elementary School: Reading profiency; third indicator — language arts; American Indians — reading, math; economically disadvantaged — reading, math

The whole report is available at www.sde.state.id.us/admin/ayp05/

The long drive across the country is over. We arrived back in Pocatello a few minutes after 6 p.m., right on schedule. We picked up Bradica (the dog) from the kennel, came home, and unloaded the motorhome. We’re now kicking back and enjoying not having to drive or stay in a campground.

Yesterday was a very long and tiring drive. We arrived at the campground at 8:30 p.m. When we got ready for bed, my nasal CPAP machine would not start. Without that machine there is no sleeping possible. I also didn’t have tools, either. I walked over to the truck stop and bought a phillips screwdriver and a pair of needle nosed pliers. I took it apart and couldn’t figure out what was the problem. Both Nina and Michael were sleeping, so I was trying not to make very much noise. I went to bed thinking I’d just tough it out — but by 12:30 I was still completely unable to sleep. I took the machine into the bathroom where I could turn on the lights and took it apart. This time I found a coil that had come loose on one side from the printed circuit board. I worked some duct tape magic and got the component to make solid contact with the board and the machine would then work. About 1:30 am I was finally able to get into bed and get some sleep. Nina drove the rest of the way home and I stayed in bed asleep until close to 11 a.m. I’ve got two of these machines and I guess I really need to take both of them with me when I’m traveling.

It’s good to be home and have a wife in the house as well. She was right ready to get home as well. Michael will stay here until Friday morning when Nina will meet Heather and exchange the kid. He’s been a lot of fun to have with us and has been a real trooper on this trip. I think I’ll go get a bite to eat and get ready for bed. Tomorrow is a work day….

Iowa leads the nation in corn production and has done so for the past 10 years. Iowa, according to the Corn Use FAQ, produces more corn than any other country in the world (other than the United States). We’ve seen a lot of corn today. In the rare case where there wasn’t a corn field on the side of the freeway, then the farmer was growing soybeans. There aren’t any of the big sprinkler systems here, either. There must be enough natural rainfall that those systems aren’t needed as there also doesn’t seem to be any other irrigation method, either. We’ve got about 28 miles left in the State of Iowa before crossing the Missouri River into Nebraska. We’re going across the northern part of Omaha (Interstate 680) so we can stop at the Winter Quarters Visitor’s Center and Temple for a few minutes. Today is a lovely day for traveling. It isn’t very hot — we don’t even need the air conditioning on in the front seat, yet. There are some high cirrus clouds but otherwise it’s a bright, sunny day. The cornfields are actually quite pretty. Every once in a while we’ll pass a farm with a red barn whereas most of them have white barns. The freeway is very noisey — that is, the concrete on the freeway makes a lot of tire noise. We like asphalt roads much better.

I don’t think I’ve ever driven across Iowa except on I-80. The only time we’ve been off the freeway was back in 1978 when the kids and I followed the ambulance from Ft. Madison up to Iowa City when Nina was being transported to the hospital. After she got out of the hospital a few days later, we did a small amount of exploring in the immediate area around Iowa City and then drove back to Chardon, Ohio and home. Looking at the map I see a number of interesting places in Iowa that would be fun to explore. After I retire we will take a few months to travel around the country driving on roads other than the freeway. Then perhaps we’ll stop in Mamie Eisenhower’s birthplace and look around on a scenic drive through Iowa….

The campground, Colony Country Campground was very nice. It was easy to find, easy to park, and very close to a large mall, great restaurants, and the Amana Colonies area for sightseeing. We pulled out of there about 6:30 a.m. CDT and after stopping for gas and a take-out McDonalds breakfast, we were on the road at about 7. We’ll be in Winter Quarters about 11 a.m. and then will settle in for the very long drive across Nebraska. This state is actually longer than Wyoming! And, at least along the freeway, there isn’t much of redeeming value. We are kind of hoping to get to Laramie, Wyoming by the end of the day. That’s about an nine-hour drive after we leave Omaha. Another long, driving day. But, we’ll soon be leaving the corn behind.